Since TikTok is pretty much the new Mayo Clinic, swiftly surpassing GOOP in this respect and where everyone should be sourcing totally credible and peer-reviewed medical advice, today we are treated to the cheap, accessible cure for insomnia all of us sleep-deprived messes have been seeking. Put down that bottle of Lunesta, y’all, because the produce aisle at your local Walmart is here to gently but effectively knock out your chronically wired ass.
via Nine.com.au:
Is it true that a cup of lettuce water can help put you to sleep?
If you trust TikTok, yes. But if you value expert opinion, it’s a big no!
The latest TikTok hack to go viral involves an insomniac (AKA TikTok user Shapla_11), lettuce leaves and boiling water.
“So apparently drinking lettuce water makes you sleepy,” the video begins.
In the quick video Shapla_11, proceeds to make the lettuce water concoction, sips it and then admits to feeling drowsy — “Not hella sleepy, like knockout, but I do feel drowsy,” she notes — only to return with an update touting the powers of the sleepy drink.
Of course, the video has piled up more than a million likes and counting, and if there’s a lettuce shortage at your local store, it’s because Gen Z is steeping the hell out of every leaf they can find.
But if you ask a doctor — and we did — when it comes to treating insomnia, there’s nothing special about lettuce leaves.
“If there was, you’d fall asleep every time you ate a salad,” says Dr Brad McKay.
“If you sincerely believe boiled lettuce juice will help you fall asleep then it might have a chance of working, but any effect will come from the power of placebo and the influence of your own mind — not from the lettuce.”
In this viral hack’s defense lettuce does contain lactucarium — that milky fluid that usually secretes from the stems of several types of lettuce — also called ‘lettuce opium’ and was used by the ancient Egyptians for its putative “sedative and analgesic properties”. However, Dr Brad admits the amount of lactucarium you’d actually ingest from boiling a few leaves would be miniscule.
Dr. Brad goes on to note that “You’d need to consume a whole field of lettuce in order to get enough lactucarium to match the amounts used in research.”
Here is the original TikTok:
@shapla_11 if you can’t sleep, try this #lettucewater #insomnia #lifehacks #fyp
Forget reducing your caffeine intake after 2 p.m., everyone. Just keep mainlining Peet’s House Blend 18 hours a day but rip the hell out of a hapless bag of romaine at 2:54 a.m. and drown it in boiling water so you can drag your carcass up for work three hours later.
Pic: TikTok/Shapla_11