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Tart Cherry for Sleep: Small Trials, Mixed Results and Who Paid for Them

By the Sleep Anchors editorial team Published Last reviewed

Unlabeled amber supplement bottles and a dropper beside a printed study and reading glasses on a bedside table, lit by a lamp at night
Illustration

Tart cherry, usually the Montmorency variety, is sold as juice, concentrate and powder for sleep. The sleep evidence is a handful of small trials with mixed results, and the two newest placebo-controlled trials we read saw no effect. This guide sets out what those trials found, what the one systematic review says, who funded the work, and what is unknown.

It is not medical advice. If sleep trouble is persistent, talk to a healthcare provider.

The Short Answer

  • The one systematic review calls the evidence limited and heterogeneous. A 2025 review of 7 interventional studies found that three reported improvements in sleep indicators such as duration, efficiency or sleep onset, and three reported higher melatonin. Dose, duration and populations differed a lot.
  • The early trials were small and positive on some measures. Trials with 15, 20 and 8 completers reported longer sleep, better efficiency or fewer awakenings, depending on the trial.
  • The two newest placebo-controlled trials we read found no effect. A trial of 34 people with sleep issues and overweight or obesity, and a trial of 44 healthy adults, found no significant differences in sleep from placebo.
  • Some of the research has industry links. The trial in adults with overweight or obesity that found nothing was funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute, and one early trial tested a proprietary product from a named company.
  • We found no NIH fact sheet on tart cherry. The MedlinePlus list of herbs and supplements has no entry for it.

What Tart Cherry Is and How It Might Work

Tart Montmorency cherries have been reported to contain phytochemicals including melatonin, and researchers have looked at whether cherry juice raises melatonin, supplies the amino acid tryptophan, or reduces inflammation (Howatson et al., 2012; Losso et al., 2018). A 2025 review says tart cherries contain melatonin and anthocyanins that may be effective in improving sleep quality, and that clinical efficacy and mechanisms remain to be shown (Barforoush et al., 2025). These are proposed mechanisms, and the trials below are what test them.

What the Trials Show

  • Pigeon and colleagues, 2010. A randomized, double-blind crossover pilot of a proprietary tart cherry juice blend (CherryPharm) against a placebo beverage, 2 weeks each, in 15 otherwise healthy older adults with chronic insomnia. Compared with placebo, the juice reduced minutes awake after sleep onset. There were no improvements versus placebo in sleep latency, total sleep time or sleep efficiency. The authors call the effect modest, with moderate effect sizes and some negligible ones, and say the effects were considerably smaller than those of hypnotic drugs and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. The study was supported by NIH grants (Pigeon et al., 2010).
  • Howatson and colleagues, 2012. A randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial of 20 healthy adults who drank a tart cherry juice concentrate or placebo for 7 days. Urinary melatonin was higher with the juice, and actigraphy showed more time in bed, total sleep time and sleep efficiency. The authors suggest it might help manage disturbed sleep. The PubMed record lists no funding, and we did not check the full text (Howatson et al., 2012).
  • Losso and colleagues, 2018. A placebo-controlled crossover pilot in adults over 50 with insomnia, who drank 240 mL of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for 2 weeks. Eleven people were randomized and three with sleep apnea were excluded. The 8 who completed it slept 84 minutes longer on polysomnography (p = 0.0182), and sleep efficiency on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index improved (p = 0.03). Other questionnaires did not differ significantly. The authors declare no conflicts, and the work had NIH funding (Losso et al., 2018).
  • Hillman and colleagues, 2022. In 44 healthy adults, tart cherry juice or capsules of powder, or their placebos, for 30 days. There were no significant differences in sleep time or quality between groups, though both improved over the 30 days. The authors call their results in conflict with earlier data and say more investigation is warranted. They declare no conflicts (Hillman et al., 2022).
  • Tucker and colleagues, 2024. A randomized crossover trial of 34 people with sleep issues and overweight or obesity, who took 500 mg capsules of Montmorency tart cherry powder or placebo an hour before bed for 14 days. No significant effect was seen on any measure, including sleep time, deep and REM sleep from a sleep monitor and a wearable, three sleep questionnaires, or inflammation markers. The authors suggest testing higher doses. The study was funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute, which the paper says had no role in the design, analysis or decision to publish (Tucker et al., 2024).

What the Review Says

A 2025 systematic review searched five databases in January 2025 and included 7 interventional studies of tart cherry and sleep, inflammation or neurotransmitter synthesis. Three studies reported significant improvements in sleep duration, efficiency or onset time, three reported higher melatonin, and two reported lower inflammatory markers. The authors conclude that tart cherry may be effective, but that the evidence is limited and heterogeneous because dose, duration and participants differed, and they call for high-quality trials in diverse populations. They declare no conflicts (Barforoush et al., 2025).

Who Ran the Research

  • The 2010 and 2018 pilots had NIH grants. The 2010 pilot tested a proprietary product from a named company, and we did not check whether the company supported it beyond the grants.
  • The 2024 trial that found no effect was funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute. The paper says the funders had no role in the design, the analysis or the decision to publish, and we did not check the institute’s role beyond that statement.
  • We did not check the funding of the 2012 trial, and we did not check the 2022 trial’s funding beyond its conflict statement.

Funding does not invalidate a study. It is why we say who is who.

Doses and Forms

  • 240 mL of juice twice a day for 2 weeks in the 2018 pilot, and the same 2-week length in the 2010 pilot with a proprietary juice blend.
  • A juice concentrate for 7 days in the 2012 trial. The abstract does not give the amount.
  • 500 mg of powder in capsules an hour before bed for 14 days in the 2024 trial, and 2 capsules a day or two 240 mL bottles a day for 30 days in the 2022 trial.
  • No established dose or form. The review says dose and duration varied widely. Juice, concentrate and powder are not interchangeable.

Safety

  • We did not find an NIH fact sheet on tart cherry. The MedlinePlus list of herbs and supplements, which links to NIH fact sheets, has no tart cherry entry.
  • The abstracts we read do not report adverse events, and we did not read the full texts. The trials were short, lasting 7 to 30 days. In our search we did not find a safety review of tart cherry supplements.
  • The trials that used juice gave large volumes, 480 mL a day in the 2018 pilot. We did not look up the sugar or calorie content of these juices.
  • The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says dietary supplements may interact with your medications or pose risks if you have certain medical problems or are going to have surgery, and that many have not been tested in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children. It advises anyone who has side effects to stop taking the supplement and contact a healthcare provider (NCCIH, last updated January 2019).

What We Do Not Know

  • Whether tart cherry helps sleep. The early small trials and the later null ones disagree.
  • Whether the difference is dose, form or population. The 2024 authors suggest a higher dose in people with overweight or obesity.
  • How much melatonin a product contains, and whether it matters. One trial measured a rise in urinary melatonin, and none of the abstracts we read reports the melatonin content of the cherry product.
  • Long-term safety. The trials lasted at most 30 days.

Questions

Does tart cherry help you sleep?

The evidence is limited and mixed. Small trials reported longer sleep, better efficiency or fewer awakenings, a 2025 review calls the evidence limited and heterogeneous, and two placebo-controlled trials of 34 and 44 people found no effect.

Does tart cherry contain melatonin?

Tart Montmorency cherries have been reported to contain melatonin, and one trial found higher urinary melatonin after tart cherry juice concentrate. None of the abstracts we read gives the amount in a product.

How much tart cherry should I take?

We cannot give a dose. The trials used 240 mL of juice twice a day, a concentrate, or 500 mg of powder, with different results. Ask a healthcare provider, especially if you take medication.

Is tart cherry juice or powder better?

We found no trial that compares forms for sleep.

See Also

Red tart cherry juice concentrate is one of the ingredients in Yu Sleep, and it is listed first in the blend. Its label gives no amount. The ordering rule sets no ceiling for it below the blend’s 637 mg, and a concentrate is not the same as the 240 mL of juice in the trials. Our side-effects guide explains the label. That guide contains an affiliate link.

Check current pricing and availability

Sources Cited in This Guide

  1. Barforoush F, Ebrahimi S, Abdar MK, et al. “The Effect of Tart Cherry on Sleep Quality and Sleep Disorders: A Systematic Review.” Food Sci Nutr. 2025. Read September 19, 2026 (abstract and conflict statement). PMID 40964149
  2. Pigeon WR, Carr M, Gorman C, Perlis ML. “Effects of a tart cherry juice beverage on the sleep of older adults with insomnia: a pilot study.” J Med Food. 2010. Read September 19, 2026 (abstract and grants). PMID 20438325
  3. Howatson G, Bell PG, Tallent J, Middleton B, McHugh MP. “Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality.” Eur J Nutr. 2012. Read September 19, 2026 (abstract). PMID 22038497
  4. Losso JN, Finley JW, Karki N, et al. “Pilot Study of the Tart Cherry Juice for the Treatment of Insomnia and Investigation of Mechanisms.” Am J Ther. 2018. Read September 19, 2026 (abstract and conflict statement). PMID 28901958
  5. Hillman AR, Trickett O, Brodsky C, Chrismas B. “Montmorency tart cherry supplementation does not impact sleep, body composition, cellular health, or blood pressure in healthy adults.” Nutr Health. 2022 (online). Read September 19, 2026 (abstract and conflict statement). PMID 35790450
  6. Tucker RM, Kim N, Gurzell E, et al. “Commonly Used Dose of Montmorency Tart Cherry Powder Does Not Improve Sleep or Inflammation Outcomes in Individuals with Overweight or Obesity.” Nutrients. 2024. Read September 19, 2026 (abstract and conflict statement). PMID 39683518
  7. National Library of Medicine. “Herbs and Supplements.” MedlinePlus. Read September 19, 2026 (list checked for a tart cherry entry). MedlinePlus
  8. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH. “Using Dietary Supplements Wisely.” Last updated January 2019. Read September 19, 2026. NCCIH

This guide is for information and is not medical advice. Talk to a healthcare provider about medication, pregnancy, medical conditions and persistent sleep problems.

If this guide was useful, send it to someone who is also awake at 3 a.m.