Apparently lettuce has a use other than being eaten in salads and sandwiches, according to a new TikTok trend. Apparently some people swear that lettuce water can help you fall asleep.
TikToker, Shalpa Hoque tried the hack out for herself and documented her process.
You can watch her video in full here.
“So apparently drinking lettuce water makes you sleepy, sis don’t sleep so imma try it out,” she wrote in the clip.
Shalpa then ripped up some of the leafy greens and stuffed them into her mug before pouring in some boiling hot water.
She mixed her lettuce water with peppermint tea because she was “scared it was going to taste like sh*t.”
After leaving it to soak in the water for 10 minutes, she then takes the lettuce out and takes a sip, “it takes like nothing,” Shalpa says.
Later she provides an update on how she’s feeling after the drink.
“Update, I do feel slight drowsy, not hella sleepy like knockout, but I do feel sleepy.”
Cut to some time later, and in another update the drink seems to have affected Shalpa more.
“Another update, lettuce has crack because your sis is gone,” she said in bed with her eyes closed.
TikTok users seemed to be intrigued by this so-called sleep hack, as the video now has 7.2m views, and over 1.4m likes.
However, Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of nutritional medicine and the director of the Sleep Center of Excellence at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Insider that there is no research to prove that lettuce water helps us fall asleep.
However, this has been found to be the case for rats where lettuce has helped them doze off.
In a 2017 study, researchers looked at whether low and high doses of red romaine lettuce extract helped mice stay asleep longer.
Results show that it worked for the rats, but it’s unclear whether TikTokers were using this particular lettuce to improve their sleep.
St-Onge also questioned how effective stewing the lettuce in boiling water would be - even if it was the red romaine TikTokers were using.
“How much of those lettuce extracts are you getting from water? I’m not sure,” she said.
But those on the app insist they’ve been able to fall asleep quicker from it - so what’s the possible reason for this?
This may be caused by the placebo effect, according to St-Onge.
It’s when you convince yourself and your body that a treatment is working - even if that is not the case.
“If you expect something to work, then you probably feel more sleepy,” St-Onge added.
While consuming and getting wrapped up in these bizarre trends, it’s easy to forget the simple steps we can take to improve our sleep that are scientifically proven to work on humans.
From reducing our screen time, to reducing light, to mindfulness and physical exercise - soggy lettuce doesn’t seem quite as appealing somehow.
