A 2025 systematic review in Food Science & Nutrition looked at seven interventional trials of tart cherry on sleep. The most eye-catching number came from a two-week crossover study in older adults with insomnia, who slept 84 minutes longer per night after drinking Montmorency tart cherry juice compared with placebo.
The same trial reported better sleep efficiency, meaning a larger share of time in bed was actually spent asleep. Participants drank 240 mL, roughly one cup, twice a day.
The review, led by Fateme Barforoush and colleagues and published in September 2025, is the first attempt to systematically pool the small body of research on tart cherry and sleep. Its overall conclusion is more cautious than the headline number suggests.
Why tart cherries might affect sleep
Tart cherries, especially the Montmorency variety, contain naturally occurring melatonin, the hormone that helps set the body's sleep timing. They are also a source of tryptophan, an amino acid the body converts into serotonin and then melatonin.
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The Food Science & Nutrition review points to both pathways. Three of the included studies measured melatonin markers in urine after tart cherry consumption and found them elevated. Others recorded higher tryptophan availability and lower inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein and prostaglandin E2, which the authors describe as another plausible route to better sleep.
That does not turn tart cherry juice into a substitute for prescribed sleep treatment. It points to a food that appears to nudge the same biological levers as some over-the-counter sleep aids.
The evidence base is thin
The 84-minute figure originally comes from a small pilot trial by Jack Losso and colleagues at Louisiana State University, using polysomnography in adults aged 50 and older with chronic insomnia. It was reported when the study was first published and has been widely cited since.
But the trials in the new review were mostly tiny, with participant numbers in the single digits or low teens. Doses, formulations and study populations differed substantially between them. The authors flag "large differences in dose, duration of intervention and characteristics of participating populations," and conclude that the available evidence is limited and heterogeneous.
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In practice, that means tart cherry juice looks promising for sleep, but the effect sizes seen in these small trials could shrink, or fail to replicate, in larger studies. It is not yet a settled finding.
A bonus signal on inflammation and uric acid
A separate randomized crossover trial published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements in November 2025 tested a standardized tart cherry extract in 10 healthy adults. After four weeks of daily 500 mg capsules, the extract lowered plasma urate by about 37 percent and C-reactive protein, a general marker of low-grade inflammation, by about 23 percent versus placebo.
Uric acid is the compound that, at high levels, can crystallize in joints and drive gout attacks. The finding echoes older research linking cherry intake to fewer gout flares, but with only 10 participants, it is a signal rather than proof. Anyone with gout or on urate-lowering medication should talk to their doctor before changing their routine.
What this means for the reader
If you want to test tart cherry juice for sleep, the dose used in the strongest trial in the review was 240 mL twice a day, morning and evening, for two weeks. It is a food, not a drug, but tart cherry juice is high in natural sugars and calories, and it can interact with some medications through its effect on the liver enzyme CYP3A4, so it is worth checking with a pharmacist if you take prescription drugs.
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The bigger picture from the review is modest but useful. A common fruit juice, in a couple of small trials, seems to lengthen sleep in people who struggle to get enough of it. That is a long way from a cure for insomnia, but it is a low-risk experiment for most healthy adults to try.
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