If you struggle to sleep, it might be time to ditch the late-night tipple and sleeping pills – and try cherry juice instead. The fruit drink is known for its high sugar content, but new research has revealed it could work to beat insomnia and increase sleep time. The unlikely health concoction was used by professional athletes ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to reduce recovery time between events. And now, two studies have shown that cherry juice also has the ability to help with sleep-related issues. Nigel Mitchell, performance nutritionist for Healthspan Elite, said he includes the drink “as an important part of the recovery protocol with all professional sports teams” that he works with. He said, “Many athletes find that cherry juice also supports sleep when taken an hour before bedtime.” After two weeks of drinking cherry juice, people suffering from insomnia gained, on average, an extra of 83 minutes sleep a night, a study by Louisiana State University found. Cherries are laced with tryptophan which turns into melatonin in the body, the hormone responsible for feelings of drowsiness. Drinking two glasses of cherry juice a day could also increase your ‘sleep efficiency’ – a global measure of sleep quality, separate research by Northumbria University showed. The study of healthy volunteers revealed that that people consuming tart Montmorency cherry juice twice a day for a week enjoyed 25 minutes of additional sleep, as well as an increase of up to six percent in ‘sleep efficiency’. While cherries won’t knock you out like a strong drink, they work by stabilising sleep patterns by regulating the chemicals in the body that make a person feel either drowsy or alert.