Cherry

Cherries — both sweet (Bing, Rainier) and tart (Montmorency, Morello) — are stone fruits high in anthocyanins, melatonin, and a range of other polyphenols. The tart varieties, used mostly in juice and dried form, have been studied more extensively for their effects on sleep, exercise recovery, and gout.

For sleep, multiple small randomized trials have found that tart cherry juice (typically 8 oz, twice daily, for one to two weeks) modestly increases sleep duration and sleep efficiency in older adults and people with insomnia. The proposed mechanism involves cherries' melatonin content and effects on tryptophan metabolism. The effect size is real but modest — not a substitute for clinical treatment of insomnia.

Sleep evidence

The strongest trial evidence is for older adults with insomnia, where regular tart cherry juice over one to two weeks produces small but reproducible improvements in sleep time and efficiency. For acute use, drinking tart cherry juice an hour or two before bed is the typical pattern. Sweet cherries also contain melatonin but at lower concentrations and haven't been studied as extensively.

Gout and inflammation

Tart cherry consumption has been associated with reduced gout attack frequency in observational studies, with one analysis finding a roughly 35% reduction in flare risk when cherries were consumed in the previous two days. The likely mechanism is anti-inflammatory effects and possible reduction in serum uric acid. For athletes, tart cherry juice has been studied as an aid to recovery from intense exercise, with modest reductions in muscle soreness reported. Caveats: most positive trials are small, and tart cherry juice is high in sugar — concentrate products are denser still.