Your summertime insomnia may not be cured by the lettuce water trend.
At least, that’s what experts are saying of the TikTok trend that boasts mixing romaine lettuce and hot water as a natural sedative.
Indeed, a certified sleep coach at Amerisleep, Rosie Osmun said it actually has to do with the ritual of drinking a soothing beverage, rather than the contents themselves—no matter how many leafy greens you use.
“Any perceived benefits likely come from the relaxing habit of sipping something warm before bed,” she said in a statement to E! News. “While lettuce contains some sleep-friendly nutrients like lactucarium and magnesium, the amounts are negligible.”
Osmun posited that while lettuce also contains a compound called lactucarium, which in large amounts is considered “lettuce opium,” putting a few leaves in a glass of water won’t necessarily do the trick.
The sleep expert shared that the lettuce trend is, perhaps, just the sleepy girl mocktail remixed, adding, “It’s no surprise people are looking for natural alternatives to sleep aids but we need to be honest about what actually works and what’s just a viral placebo.”
But Osmun isn’t completely writing off the harmless concoction, either.
“If someone feels calmer after drinking lettuce water, that’s great, but we shouldn’t confuse that with true sleep science,” she explained. “People need to know that better rest comes from real changes: a better mattress, a wind-down routine, and minimizing distractions. Those are proven, powerful tools; lettuce water is just a side note.”
A side note with quite the range. After all, social media users struggling with insomnia have sworn by the lettuce water benefits for years.
“It took me a minute to fall asleep, but once I fell asleep I fell asleep hard,” one user, who admitted she was skeptical of the trend at first, said in a video. “I think this drink could potentially help people who have trouble staying asleep.”
Meanwhile, a mom on the app swore that having her baby bathe in lettuce water helped him sleep.
“Go ahead and grab the tomatoes, the croutons and a little bit of ranch dressing and we’ll have this thing done,” her husband joked, before the video cut to both parents confirming it paid off. “I’m gonna say it, I think it worked last night.”
Keep reading for more expert-backed health tips…
Remember Every Little Bit Helps
“Sometimes pressing play on a 20- or 30- or 45-minute video feels overwhelming,” acknowledged Roup. “So let’s take the overwhelm out.” It’s for this precise reason that the mom of two (she and husband Morgan Humphrey share daughters Harlow and Mercer) offers options like her quickie program packed with four weeks of what she calls “spicy, short workouts” that can be completed in 25 minutes or less.
“These are short workouts every day that you can consistently show up to,” she explained. “I roll out of bed, I’m in my pajamas and I’m doing a 10-minute full body workout and then I move on with my day.”
The way Roup sees it, good results can come in small, efficient packages.
“These big, lofty goals, they don’t last,” she noted. “That’s why New Year’s resolutions happen, but then by February, you’re back on the same train. It’s actually smaller habits on a daily basis that build something bigger over time. And again, that’s why I’m constantly saying commit to less so you can show up more when it comes to your workouts.”
For those looking to create a regular fitness routine, she recommends squeezing in “little chunks of movement—10 minutes between a Zoom call and just continue to build off of that because that’s what’s really going to shift things for people.”
Remove the Guess Work
As Roup put it, “The decision fatigue is real.” So free up space to figure out what you’re making for dinner by committing to a pre-set routine.
“My most successful clients and members are the ones that are following my weekly schedule or one of my programs that come with a calendar,” she noted. “Here’s the video you’re going to do. So that you know when you wake, you don’t have to make another decision. You’re like no, this is on my schedule. I know what I’m doing.”
And while, sure, she’d love to bring in more Sculpt Society acolytes, her advice for any fitness newbie is just “finding something that you enjoy,” Roup said, “finding something you can follow that fits into your lifestyle.”
Be Kind to Yourself
Once upon a time Roup was that girl going hard at the gym each day. Then she took it down a notch with her own brand of movement that she describes as “85 percent low-impact, full-body workouts” with just a “sprinkle” of easy-to-follow dance cardio.
“My body almost sighed with relief,” she recounted. “it was like, ‘Oh, thank you for finally listening to what I need.’ And I never saw better results.” Which is why she insists workouts “don’t need to be super long, they just need to be well-programed. And I really saw those results in my physical and mental health.”
Ditch the Diets
Again, yes, really. After years of yo-yo dieting, binge eating, calorie-counting and constantly thinking about food, “I finally hit my low point,” Roup said. “The mental space and thought that’s going into everything I’m eating and how to burn off everything, I just got to that point where it’s like, I don’t want to do this anymore.”
So she stopped. “I scrapped all of the quote unquote labels that you put on food being good or bad,” she explained, “and just really allowed myself to look at food as food and to have nothing off limits.”
With a diet culture mindset already firmly engrained in her mind, it was a bit of a struggle at first. “You’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m just going to have, like, Snickers all day long and I’m going to eat all the things that I can’t have,'” said Roup. “But after a week or two, that gets really boring.”
She’s spent the past decade getting in touch with her body’s cues, “Like, when am I actually hungry? What am I craving? What foods are giving me energy? What foods are making me crash and not feeling good?” she said. “And when you start to lean into that, it really simplifies food.”
Granted, she acknowledged, it wasn’t an overnight shift into intuitive eating. “It took me a really long time to unravel that,” she said. “But I was just at my breaking point, like, I’m sick of following a stupid diet and feeling s–tty.”
Don’t Forget to Have Fun
Nope, it’s not just a directive for pee-wee baseball players. “I want people to look forward to movement,” said Roup of ensuring every step of her routines are done to the beat of a catchy track. “If we can pair movement with music, it just starts to lighten the mood.”
Rather than create an intense AF and sometimes draining atmosphere, “My approach is really leaning into changing the way we work out,” she said. “I really want this to feel joyful and fun.”
