Lettuce Water Before Bed: Myth or Simple Sleep Hack? (Video)

Transcript

Can lettuce water really help you fall asleep?

Can lettuce water really help you fall asleep?

Lettuce Water Myth

Stick around; the simple bedtime habit that actually works is coming up.

Where the idea started

Wild lettuce, a bitter cousin of your salad greens, once yielded a milky sap that herbalists dried into lactucarium, a so-called ‘lettuce opium’ used for coughs and restless nights when medicines were scarce. Ancient Egyptians linked it to fertility, and Romans sometimes ate it at feasts.

Do salad leaves contain sleep compounds?

The sleepy compounds, lactucin and lactucopicrin, are abundant in wild lettuce but have been bred out of the crisp iceberg and romaine we buy today, leaving only trace amounts that a quick steep can’t pull out. Most of the milky sap stays locked inside the leaf, so a short steep pulls out barely anything.

Key quote

Salad lettuce was bred to be mild and crisp, which means the bitter ‘sleepy’ part was bred out of it long ago.

Lettuce is mostly water

Lettuce is about ninety-five percent water, which is why it wilts quickly and why a limp leaf can be revived in iced water.

Clean ritual steps

If you enjoy the ritual, keep it clean: rinse three or four large leaves under cool running water, tear them into a mug, pour boiling water over about 250 ml, cover for five to ten minutes, and add a slice of lemon or a few mint leaves if you like. Drink it fresh and discard any leftovers.

The one habit that actually helps

What really helps you fall asleep faster isn’t a drink; it’s a steady wake-time each day, getting ten to twenty minutes of morning light, cutting caffeine after two pm, and finishing dinner two to three hours before bed.

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Read the full guide

The full guide is on thecareonline.com. General information only, so check with your doctor for your own case.