The sleepy girl mocktail, checked against the trials
Tart cherry juice, a scoop of magnesium powder and something fizzy. The drink went viral as a bedtime ritual. Each ingredient has a small study or two behind it, and those studies did not look much like the glass.
contentsThe drink
Key points
- No study has tested the mocktail itself. The evidence is for its parts, separately.
- Tart cherry concentrate, twice a day for a week, lengthened sleep by about 35 to 40 minutes in a small trial.
- In that trial, doses were taken on waking and before the evening meal, not at bedtime.
- Magnesium shortened time to fall asleep by about 17 minutes in older adults, but the evidence is rated low to very low.
- Adults should keep supplement magnesium within 350 mg a day unless a doctor advises otherwise.
The drink
The recipe is simple. Tart cherry juice, a scoop of magnesium powder, topped with sparkling water or a prebiotic soda, drunk in the evening. It took off on social video as a cozy bedtime ritual.
We could not find any trial of the drink as a whole. So, as with the cortisol cocktail, the fair approach is to check each part.
Tart cherry: one week, 20 people
The study most often linked is a 2012 trial in 20 healthy adults. For a week they took 30 mL of tart cherry concentrate twice a day, or a placebo drink, then swapped.[49]
- Melatonin measured in urine went up.
- Total sleep time on a wrist sensor was about 419 minutes, against about 380 on placebo.
- Daytime napping dropped.
One detail rarely makes it into the videos: participants took one serving within 30 minutes of waking and one about 30 minutes before their evening meal. Not at bedtime.[49]
Magnesium: three trials, low certainty
Only three placebo-controlled trials have tested magnesium for insomnia, all in older adults, 151 people altogether. Pooled, they showed people falling asleep about 17 minutes sooner than on placebo. Total sleep time did not change significantly.[50]
The reviewers judged that body of work too weak to support firm recommendations.[50] Our magnesium piece looks at which forms were used.
The glass versus the studies
table · what was tested, what is poured
| Item | In the studies | In the mocktail |
|---|---|---|
| Tart cherry[49] | 30 mL concentrate, twice a day, for a week | Often juice rather than concentrate, once, at night |
| Magnesium[50] | Oxide or citrate tablets, weeks of daily use, older adults | A powder of varying form and dose, often in younger adults |
| The combination | Never tested | The whole point of the drink |
Who should be careful
The NIH advises adults to keep magnesium from supplements within 350 mg a day, a limit that does not include food. Too much from supplements can cause diarrhea, nausea and cramping, and it can get in the way of several prescription drugs.[51] If you take regular medication or live with a long-term health condition, ask a pharmacist before making this a nightly habit.
Our read
A calm, screen-free drink before bed is a reasonable ritual, and rituals can help. The studies behind its parts are small, short and dosed differently from the glass. Enjoy it if you like it. Do not expect it to carry a bad week of sleep on its own. The sleep quiz is a faster way to see what might really be going on.
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Sources
- Howatson et al., 2012. Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality. European Journal of Nutrition.
- Mah & Pitre, 2021. Oral magnesium supplementation for insomnia in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.
- NIH ODS, 2021. Magnesium: Fact Sheet for Consumers. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.
This article is educational and isn’t medical advice. It was written and checked by the UNWIRE™ editorial team; no clinician has reviewed it yet. UNWIRE™ is a nutrition company, and this article does not describe any product.
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