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How To Make Lettuce Tea For Sleep

How Does It Taste

Drink Lettuce Tea to Help You Sleep!

Unsurprisingly, not great. Though the addition of peppermint tea might make it a bit more palatable, most people whove tried it on TikTok note that its definitely not a tasty drink (oftentimes they end of closing their noses and chugging the tea as quickly as possible. As for the smell, one creator notes that it tastes how asparagus pee smells, so well leave you to do with that what youd like.

Will Drinking Lettuce Water Help Me Sleep

Dr. Breus said there is no evidence in humans to prove that drinking hot lettuce water will help with sleep. There is a study using lettuce leaves and lettuce seed extracts on mice showing the sleep-inducing potential, but no studies on humans specifically. Wild lettuce was once used in folk medicine as a sedative during the 19th century, specifically a dried milky substance secreted called lactucarium. But Michelle Drerup, PsyD, says in a New York Times article, “boiling a few leaves would not release enough extract to have an effect on you.”

So if the science isn’t there, why are so many lettuce-water drinkers falling asleep? According to Dr. Breus, “People are desperate and following a trend.” He thinks it is “100 percent” a placebo effect. If you drink something that you think and hope will make you sleepy, you’re more likely to feel the dozing effects. It could also be the act of sipping on a warm beverage at night that helps people fall asleep.

Either way, drinking lettuce water isn’t harmful, so feel free to give it a try. Just know that when you start feeling sleepy, it may be your mind playing tricks on you rather than the lettuce doing its job.

How To Get Quality Sleep

There is no magic bullet sleep remedy that works for everyone, but there are some sleep hygiene tips you can follow.

Some of these include:

  • Make your bedroom quiet and relaxing
  • Keep the bedroom at a cool temperature
  • Limit exposure to bright light in the evenings
  • Avoid consuming caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime
  • Keep your bedroom dark when it is time to go to sleep and don’t leave the TV on

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According To Tiktok Boiled Lettuce Water Could Be The Answer To Your Insomnia

Its easy to forget how important sleep is. Not getting a good nights sleep is super detrimental to your health, so much so that its said to actually shorten your life span. Unfortunately, not getting a good nights sleep can become a habit, which affects pretty much every area of your life your mood, your relationships, your job, your mental health the list goes on.

Enter TikTok. Theres a new TikTok hack circulating, started by TikToker Shapla Hoque , where she puts lettuce and boiled water into a mug as a way of helping her sleep. And now, we even have a update video with all her dos and donts for making lettuce water before bedtime.

Lets start at the beginning. TikTok hacks have come in handy previously with tips like scoring the best seats on a plane and treating breakouts with bandaids, but this one, boiled lettuce to help you sleep, actually has science on its side.

A 2017 food science study stated that Lactuca sativa , an annual herb that belongs to the Compositae family, is known for its medicinal value. Traditionally, lettuce has been suggested to have a sedative-hypnotic property.

Lactucopicrin and lactucin are the major active compounds of lactucarium and were reported to have analgesic activity equal to or greater than that of ibuprofen in mice. They also showed a sedative activity as revealed by measuring the spontaneous movement in mice.

Heres what we got:

How To Dehydrate Spring Mix

Make Lettuce Tea for Insomnia

You have two choices. Toss them – dehydrate them.

Many spring mix packages come with a variety of lettuces, that change with the season and what is being harvested at the particular hothouse.

In our family, we know the deeper the color, the more nutritious a lettuce is, but none of us too fond of the purple varieties because they seem to lose any crunch factor. Thus, they can be problematic in dehydrating – or more specifically, in the powdering at the end of the process.

Case in point – I’ll share the video I created when filming this process and how I ran into a big issue on my very last batch of lettuce powder. It just didn’t dehydrate fully for a variety of reasons:

  • I piled the lettuce too high trying to show that you don’t have to lay it out in single leaves
  • The lettuce was a little past it’s ‘best by’ date
  • The lettuce just wasn’t fully dehydrated throughout all the trays

The purples seemed to be the ones causing the most trouble.

Thus, if you want a carefree process, do like I did on my last batch and just get rid of ’em I throw them out for the bunnies or into the compost.

However, if you want to use them, and you’re confident in your desire to have them in your greens, go for it! Just make sure they’re truly dehydrated before adding them into the rest of your green powder batch.

I do recommend if it’s your first time, to separate those purple leaves to help you test easier.

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This Bizarre Tiktok Lettuce Hack To Help You Sleep Actually Works

Lettuce and water. Sounds like a recipe for rabbits, but, in fact, its a recipe for sleep success! According to TikTok, drinking boiled lettuce water before bed can help you drift off to sleep.

Really, TikTok? Is the lettuce water laced with Xanax? Perhaps youre mistaking lettuce for something else? But apparently not!

How To Make This Snoozie Smoothie

Make chamomile tea as you normally would with a tea bag and boiling water. Let it cool a bit and then whizz in food processor with the lettuce, banana and lemon juice. Serve warm and sip before bed.

Night night..

Once youve tried this snoozie smoothie you might like to try the more normal breakfast variety. Here are some great recipes to get you going after a good nights sleep

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Day : Cold Lettuce Water At : 30 Pm

Norris, the TikToker, said that drinking the lettuce water cold still worked its sedative magic for him. He now makes lettuce water in big batches and saves them in the refrigerator to drink over several days.

I was curious if the drink temperature made a difference, so I added ice cubes to chill my lettuce water.

Estimated sleep duration: 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. . Collage: VICE / Images: Koh Ewe

While my lettuce water experiment was ongoing, I also spoke to Austin Ng, a TikToker who shares a similar sleep habit as minehe doesnt have trouble sleeping and usually goes to bed at midnight.

But that one time he drank lettuce water at around 9:30 p.m., he said he was knocked out by 10:45 p.m.

I was very sleepy. Definitely very drowsy, did not expect that, he said of his lettuce water trial documented on TikTok. I was like, OK, that’s kind of like medicine.

I couldnt say the same for my experience with lettuce water. Hot or cold, I just wasnt feeling its purported sleep-inducing effects.

Ng said that he hasnt tried lettuce water after that first time, since he isnt that big of a lettuce fan. I thought it kind of tastes like oolong tea, he added.

What Does The Science Say About Lettuce Water For Sleep

No, theres no evidence that drinking lettuce tea helps induce sleep in humans

Unlike many other TikTok trends, there is actually some science behind lettuce as a sleep aid. A study published in May 2017 in the journal Food Science Biotechnology has been heavily cited in support of lettuce water to improve sleep. The study specifically found that some varieties of lettuce extract, specifically red Romaine, induced an increase in the sleep duration of mice at low and high doses.

Michael Breus, PhD, a clinical psychologist and the author of multiple books about sleep, including The Power of When, points out that the study does little to support the hypothesis that lettuce water works as a sleep aid for a variety of reasons.

For one, he notes that lettuce extract isnt what put the mice to sleep to begin with it helped them sleep longer.

These mice were drugged when given the lettuce, he says, pointing out that the mice were injected with a dose of pentobarbital to put the animal to sleep soon after the extract was orally administered.

Furthermore, the study wasnt set up to determine if the lettuce extract actually lessened the time it took the mice to fall asleep it was designed to compare the sleep-inducing effects of green and red leaf lettuces.

All the mice in the study were separated from one another, and the researchers measured how long it took for each mouse to fall asleep and how long each mouse slept . But, any mice that didnt sleep within 15 minutes of the injection were excluded from the final analysis.

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We Try The Boiled Lettuce Water Sleep Hack

Okay, so we all know by now not to believe everything you see on TikTok, right? But could this sleep hack actually work? I decided to give it a red hot go because my sleeping habits are shocking.

How to make sleepy lettuce tea:

  • Wash a lettuce leaf. I used iceberg lettuce.
  • Place it into your cup.
  • Pour boiled water over the lettuce until the entire leaf is soaked.
  • Add chamomile tea.
  • Leave for 10 minutes to let the lettuce do its thang.
  • Take the boiled lettuce leaf out.
  • Sip, then sleep!
  • For me, this seemingly stupid hack actually worked, which is madness. Madness I tell you! Normally it takes me AGES to fall asleep unless Ive guzzled magic red wine sleeping juice earlier. But, nope.

    Boiled lettuce for the win. And no red wine hangover!

    What Happened When We Tried It

    Nothing good. For the record, were unpleasantly surprised to find that the creator who said it tastes how asparagus pee smells was right. It tastes, in a word, horrible. However you’re thinking you’d feel drinking hot water mixed with romaine lettuce, it’s exactly like thatnot in a good way. We also didn’t notice ourselves feeling any more tired than usual, but that could’ve been because the taste was so horrific we were praying it wouldn’t work.

    That being said, there arent any potential negative side effects, so if you want to give it a try for some TikTok cloutand arent afraid of the taste or smellgo forth.

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    Story Of The Day: I Tried The Lettuce Tea Hack To Help Me Sleep

    The new trend on TikTok is something for all the people whove spent countless awake struggling to fall asleep! A humble salad ingredient can help kick thats reportedly helping everyone fall asleep, but is it a hoax?

    I have an issue falling asleep, and Ive spent countless hours trying to fix my habits so that I can fall asleep. But I can barely stick to a routine, so Ill be up till dawn come the weekend!

    Of course, looking at this lettuce tea hack for sleeping, I was intrigued. I had to try it out!

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    Its another night of being tired, but my minds running wild as daises, and I can tell that Im not about to go down easy. And you just know your work is going to suffer the next day if you dont get to bed!

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    Now I usually dont feel like herbs work for me. Ive tried lavender to relax my mind, and even chamomile isnt soothing enough for me to fall asleep.

    Its why Ive relied on medication so often and eventually landed up with an ulcer. Since then, Ive made major lifestyle changes, and giving up coffee has been the most difficult one.

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    But its all in the name of better sleep! So when I saw this TikTok hack with something as simple as lettuce, I was intrigued!

    Lactucarium is a nutrient that can help put you to sleep, and its found in lettuce. Romaine lettuce is quite rich in this nutrient!

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    You can also eat lettuce before bed for it to work or brew the tea. All you need is hot water and lettuce leaves for the tea!

    Can Lettuce Tea Help Me Sleep Better

    Can Lettuce Tea Help With Sleep?

    Written by

    30 May, 2022

    Is lettuce tea the solution to help us sleep better? A viral health tip on TikTok claims that this drink is ideal to induce sleep in a short time. In fact, before becoming a trend, it was already a well-known remedy in popular culture.

    According to its advocates, ingesting this tea about 30 to 40 minutes before going to bed can promote better sleep quality. Thus, with the hashtag #lettucewater, this preparation has reached more than 12 million reproductions.

    But what does science say, does it work? Well, unlike other remedies trending in TikTok, there are some scientific studies that speak of such effects. Even so, it isnt a magic drink, as some would have you believe. Lets take a closer look.

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    Scientific Research Has Shown That Lettuce Induces Sleep In Rodents

    A lot of talk around the TikTok sleep hack has mentioned that itâs backed by science. This isnât entirely true. While two research studies have looked at sedative qualities of lettuce, both of these were conducted in animal models, using mice.

    One study looked at what happened to the sleep of mice already in a drug-induced sleep.1 Mice were drugged with the sedative pentobarbital and researchers then administered various lettuce extracts to the sleeping rodents.

    The second study again used pentobarbital to induce artificial sleep in the mice and then looked at the effects of extracts of 4 different lettuce types .2

    Both studies found that lettuce extract increased how long the mice slept for and while this is interesting research, these are laboratory experiments that wouldnât be possible in humans. Just because something occurs in a mouse model, it doesnât mean that the same will happen in a human.

    For this research to be translatable to humans, weâd need to see controlled studies which compare how well and how long people slept with and without drinking lettuce water. At the time of writing, no such studies have been published, so weâll have to wait and see!

    Why Are Claims That Lettuce Can Fix Insomnia False

    This explainer is more than 90 days old. Some of the information might be out of date or no longer relevant. Browse our homepage for up to date content or request information about a specific topic from our team of scientists.

    This article has been translated from its original language. if you have any feedback on the translation.

    There is not enough high quality evidence to suggest that mixing boiled water with lettuce can help cure or treat insomnia.

    There is not enough high quality evidence to suggest that mixing boiled water with lettuce can help cure or treat insomnia.

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    Day : Hot Lettuce Water At : 30 Pm

    To avoid having any possible lettuce-induced sleepiness coincide with my routine sleep schedule, I tried drinking lettuce water way before my usual bedtime. I downed a cup of lettuce water right after dinner, which actually made for an oddly satisfying post-meal beverage.

    Unfortunately, the drink seemed to have no effect on me. I went to bed at around midnight as usual.

    Estimated sleep duration: 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. . Collage: VICE / Images: Koh Ewe

    Is There Any Risk In Consuming Lettuce Water To Help You Sleep

    Bonkers hack with lettuce ‘helps put people to sleep in minutes’

    Although theres no evidence to prove that lettuce water helps you to sleep, the truth is that its a harmless drink for mostpeople. Therefore, those who wish to try it can do so without any problems.

    However, it must be taken into account that its a liquid. Consequently, it isnt a good idea to drink large amounts before going to bed because it can increase the need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, which, in itself, will interrupt your sleep.

    Of course, as with other vegetables, it should be washed and disinfected well before consumption. In addition, you should consult your doctor if youre taking medication or if you have any diagnosed disease. In these special cases, it isnt always advisable to ingest natural remedies.

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    What Are Natural Habits For Better Sleep

    While sleep hacks are great if they work, Dr. Breus believes in making sure to establish good sleep hygiene. He suggests adding these five simple habits to your daily routine to help you get better quality sleep:

  • Stick to a consistent sleep schedule, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, including weekends.
  • Eliminate caffeine starting at 2 p.m. as this stimulant has been shown to reduce total sleep time by up to 41 minutes when consumed within six hours of bedtime.
  • Eliminate alcohol at least three hours before bedtime to help your body get enough REM sleep, which is vitally important for getting deep, restorative sleep.
  • Get plenty of physical activity for better sleep and better overall health. Data suggests that exercising during the day helps you fall asleep more quickly and plunges you into longer, deeper sleep.
  • Get 15 minutes of sunlight every morning to help keep your circadian rhythm functioning at its best.
  • Image Source: Newsletter Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Eric Helgas

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