Struggling with insomnia can leave you desperately Googling sleep tips late at night. When you do, you might come across a trick you've never heard of before: drinking lettuce water.
That's a now-viral hack shared by Shapla Hoque on TikTok. "If you can't sleep, try this," she wrote in the caption.
In the video, which has 1.4 million likes, Hoque explained that she heard that drinking lettuce water can help you feel tired. "Sis don't sleep, so imma try it out!" she said. Hoque then walked through the process of making her lettuce water, which included washing about four iceberg leaves, shoving them into a coffee cup, and pouring hot water over top.
Lettuce-Water-Can-It-Help-With-Sleep-AdobeStock_12192831
Hoque later followed up in the comments to advise against adding peppermint tea to lettuce water, noting, "apparently it actually keeps you awake, so for best results use chamomile tea or avoid adding any other tea."
People were all about lettuce water in the comments. "My mum used to do this for me, boiled water and [left] it in the pan for 5 min on minimum heat, always worked for me and it's all natural," one person wrote. "Way cheaper than melatonin gummies," someone else chimed in.
RELATED: 5 Sleep Products You Should Buy on Amazon, According to a Sleep Expert
Plenty of others said they plan to try out lettuce water to help them conk out at night. "I have terrible insomnia so imma try this out ASAPPP," someone said.
Hoque isn't the only person talking up the pros of lettuce water for sleep. "So I heard if you oil lettuce and drink it like a tea, you'll end up in a coma," TikTokker @neliebean wrote. (They later added, "Update: confirmed it works" in the comments.)
@@neliebean
"So apparently lettuce water knocks your a$$ out and we be up all night over here," said @thatnickguy_. In an update, he said that he got "knocked out" and forgot to finish the video.
@@thatnickguy_
Given that this is TikTok advice, it's understandable to look at the idea of drinking lettuce water with a healthy level of suspicion. So…is this legit?
Yes and no, Christopher Winter, MD, of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and author of the book, The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It, tells Health. Here's the deal.
Does lettuce contain anything that can help you sleep?
Yep. Lettuce contains something called lactucarium, which can make you feel sleepy. "It has a similar structure to opium, and has some sedative properties," Dr. Winter says.
You can actually see lactucarium if you look at the base of certain lettuces. "It's a milky substance," Dr. Winter explains. And, "if you get a whole bunch of lettuce and boil it down, you can make this chemical," he adds.
RELATED: Experts Reveal 9 Natural Sleep Aids You Can Try to Get a Better Night's Sleep
Can lettuce water help you sleep?
Maybe? While lettuce contains lactucarium and that can make you sleepy, Dr. Winter says that you'd need to steep a "tremendous" amount of lettuce to really get the benefits. "The amount of lactucarium you're getting from four to five lettuce leaves is unlikely to do much," he says. But the warmth from the water itself could help make you sleepy, along with a healthy placebo effect, he adds.
If you like the idea of trying out some kind of warm liquid for insomnia, Dr. Winter suggests using tea that contains chamomile and/or valerian. "Having a cup of tea every night about an hour before bed signals to your body that it's time to get ready for sleep," he says. "Cues can help."
Still, if you want to give lettuce water a go, Dr. Winter says that's just fine. "There's nothing harmful about putting lettuce in your tea," he points out.
To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter