I am not a great sleeper. I have tried the usual things (no phone in the bedroom, same bedtime, blackout blind) and I did not want to start on tablets, so a glass of juice in the evening felt like a fair thing to try first. Tart cherries are the ones with the sleep research attached, and they are sour enough that you would not sit and eat a bowl of them, which is exactly why they work better as a drink. Frozen ones are cheap, they defrost on the side in about an hour, and you get the same glass in January as you do in July.
What follows is how I make it: cherries, a handful of grapes for body, half a lemon so it does not taste like squash. Ten minutes, one sieve to wash up, and about 116 calories a glass.
Why these ingredients work
Tart cherries, the sour Montmorency type rather than the sweet dark ones you get in a punnet, are one of the few foods that carry melatonin, and they also contain tryptophan, the amino acid your body converts into more of it. The trials on cherry juice and sleep have been small and the improvements they found were modest, so I am not going to sell it as a cure. It is a nudge, not a switch.
The grapes are there for the drink rather than the claim. They bring potassium, around 370mg across the whole batch, and enough natural sweetness to stop the cherries tasting medicinal. Half a lemon adds vitamin C and sharpens the finish. The peel stays out of it, because the pith turns the juice bitter and there is nothing you can add afterwards to undo that.
One thing worth saying plainly: this is a sugary drink. Fruit juice is, even when you make it yourself at home. A glass carries about 22g of sugar, which is roughly what a small glass of orange juice carries, and that is why I keep it to one glass about an hour before bed rather than a pint at eleven o’clock.
FAQ
How long before bed should I drink it?
About an hour. That is long enough for it to settle so you are not lying down on a full stomach, and it means the liquid has moved through before you get into bed. Keep the glass small for the same reason. If you drink half a litre at 11pm you will be up in the night, and that will cost you more sleep than the cherries give you back.
Can I use sweet cherries or bottled cherry juice?
Sweet cherries do not carry the same amount of melatonin as the sour ones, so a punnet of dark supermarket cherries is the weaker option. Bottled cherry drinks are usually apple or grape juice with a bit of cherry for flavour, and most of them are sweetened on top of that. Frozen tart cherries are the cheapest reliable route, and the liquid that comes off them as they thaw is the strongest part, so tip that into the jug rather than down the sink.
Will it actually help me sleep?
Possibly a little. The studies behind cherry juice and sleep are small, and the difference they measured was real but modest, so treat this as one part of a wind down rather than the whole thing. A fixed bedtime, less screen time last thing and a glass of this an hour before is a better bet than the glass on its own. If you have been sleeping badly for months, or you are waking at four every morning, that is worth a conversation with your GP rather than another juice.
Sleep is when your brain does its clearing up, so this one sits alongside the rest of our focus and memory juices. More recipes like it: see the full BRAIN collection.
Tart Cherry and Grape Juice
Equipment
- 1 Juicer masticating or centrifugal
- 1 High-speed blender for the blender method
- 1 Nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve to strain the blender version
- 2 Airtight glass bottles for storing
- 1 Budget cold press juicer a great value alternative
- 1 Budget blender a great value alternative
Ingredients
Juice base
- 250 g tart cherries frozen and defrosted sour cherries, or fresh Montmorency-style ones, pitted. Keep the juice that comes off them as they thaw
- 150 g red grapes about a small handful on the stalk, washed
- 0.5 lemon peeled down to the flesh, pith removed
- 100 ml cold water for the blender method only
Optional extras
- 10 g fresh ginger peeled, if you want a bit of warmth in it
- ground cinnamon a small pinch over the top before you drink it
Instructions
Juicer method
- Defrost the cherries if they are frozen and keep the liquid that comes off them. Pull the grapes off the stalk and wash them, and peel the lemon down to the flesh.
- Feed the cherries through the juicer first, then the grapes, then the lemon. Cherries are soft and give up their juice quickly, and the grapes push the last of the cherry pulp through behind them. Pour the cherry liquid you saved into the jug at the end.
- Stir it, pour it into two small glasses and drink it. If it is for bedtime, have it about an hour before you go up rather than as you are getting into bed.
Blender method
- Defrost the cherries, de-stalk and wash the grapes, peel the lemon, and cut everything into rough chunks. Put it all in the blender with 100ml of cold water.
- Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until you cannot see any flecks of grape skin. Grape skin is the slowest thing to break down, so give it another 15 seconds if you are unsure.
- Pour through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve and press the pulp with the back of a spoon to get the last of it out. Pour into two small glasses and drink it fresh.