IS TIKTOK LETTUCE TEA TREND KEY TO A BETTER SLEEP?

One of the latest, and strangest, viral trends suggests steeping lettuce leaves in a mug of hot water could be key to sleeping through the night.

People desperate for a good night’s kip have flocked to a video on social network TikTok, which has gathered millions of likes.

In it, Shapla Hoque tells viewers struggling to sleep to “try this,” then pours hot water into a mug stuffed with lettuce.

After 10 minutes of steeping, she removes the leaves, drinks the water and heads to bed.

In an update, Shapla said it took her about 30 minutes to fall asleep.

So, is lettuce water legitimate?

As a health and wellbeing journalist – and despaired insomniac – I wanted to give this viral “life hack” a try.

I don’t think I have a particularly bad bedtime routine. My phone automatically goes on night mode by 9.30pm and I’m in bed by 10pm. So, I was going to give this lettuce water trick a go and see if it could get the Sandman to add me back to his nightly route.

Giving my lettuce a good wash, and picking out my biggest mug, I poured in the hot water and waited 15 minutes before picking out the leaves.

It worked. Or, at least, I think it did.

I tried it two more nights in a row. I drank the mug of hot water and in about 20 minutes I would be fast asleep. Confused, but pleasantly surprised, I went online searching for some scientific reasoning that this mug of hot, salad water had worked for me.

Lettuce contains lactucarium – a milky fluid that can make you sleepy.

But experts have suggested it’s unlikely four or five leaves would be enough to give you the desired effect.

Michelle Drerup, director of the behavioural sleep medicine programme at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, said it was a harmless attempt, but there is not enough evidence behind it.

In fact, while this trend has been circulating, a 2017 Korean study in mice has been cited as part of the videos.

It showed lettuce is an “interesting and cheap” source of sleep-inducing ingredients. But many fail to mention the catch – that the mice were only able to nap so well because the lettuce extracts were tested alongside a sleep-inducing drug.

It appears it is perhaps the good old placebo effect helping everyone get to bed.

So it might be worth trying in your quest to leaf no stone unturned for a quiet night’s rest.

SLEEP ON IT: Hot water and lettuce may be the way to a good night’s rest.