Effects of a tart cherry juice beverage on the sleep of older adults with insomnia: a pilot study
Pigeon WR, et al.
Published in Journal of Medicinal Food
Methodology
Randomised, placebo-controlled crossover pilot; participants drank 8 oz tart cherry juice or placebo beverage twice daily for 2 weeks per condition with washout, using sleep diaries, actigraphy and the Insomnia Severity Index.
Key Findings
In 15 older adults with insomnia, two weeks of tart cherry juice twice daily modestly reduced insomnia severity scores and shortened wake-after-sleep-onset by about 17 minutes versus placebo, but did not significantly change total sleep time, sleep latency or sleep efficiency.
Conclusions
Tart cherry juice produced small improvements in insomnia severity and night-time wakefulness in older adults, but the pilot is too small to support it as a primary insomnia treatment.
Limitations
Very small pilot (n=15) with wide variability; sleep measured largely by diary and questionnaire rather than polysomnography; brief 2-week exposure; sugar and calorie content of juice may confound; the effect size is smaller than that of established insomnia treatments.
Related Health Concerns
Study Details
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Disclosures
Funding
Cherry Marketing Institute (industry) with academic institutional support
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