WHAT DO CHERRIES AND INSOMNIA HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

The statistics are staggering. 50% of adults over the age of 55 deal with insomnia. It’s not just about having trouble falling asleep due to an overactive mind and the bodies reaction to high emotional stress but it is the inability to return to sleep after you wake up in the middle of the night. It can become maddening to not be able to turn off the inner chatter or the incessant fidgeting and flipping pillows. 

Women have it worse.  75% of those going through menopause experience night time bouts of being in an inferno. No amounts of cool clothing or bed sheets that reduce heat will change a woman’s physiology. When a woman goes through menopause, her estrogen and progesterone begins to wane. Estrogen helps to regulate cortisol, which is an important hormone to help regulate and stabilize the sleep-wake cycles. When cortisol raises and estrogen is on the decline, a woman has less physiological ways to tolerate stress. Estrogen has an impact on REM sleep and helps to decrease the amount of time it takes to fall asleep as well as assisting in metabolizing that “happy hormone” called seratonin making her feel relaxed enough to enter a sound sleep. 

Progesterone, the other important female hormone, while going through menopause also begins to decline. This hormone has a sedative quality and helps to reduce anxiety. When it becomes deficient, it no longer has the same effects leaving a woman with less abilities to control anxious energy. 

Melatonin is released by the pineal gland, a Master endocrine gland. For naturally cycling women, melatonin is higher during the first half of her cycle whereas the second half when progesterone rises after ovulation, there is more inhibition in the release of melatonin. Overall body temperature also plays a major role in sleep effectiveness. Estrogen regulates body temperature whereas progesterone contributes to a rise in temperature so the regulation of body temperature becomes harder as a woman goes through menopausal changes. 

So, where does Tart Cherry Juice come in? It helps to increase the availability of tryptophan which is an important precursor to serotonin. Research studies show that the juice inhibits a specific enzyme that degrades tryptophan. This enzyme increases as we get older leading to sleep disturbances hence more bouts of insomnia. 

One more thing, alcohol at night raises inflammation and body temperature so if you are dealing with sleep disturbances you might want to decrease imbibing  for a bit of time. 

Grab that Tart Cherry Juice and pucker up!