It’s easy to forget how important sleep is. Not getting a good night’s sleep is super detrimental to your health, so much so that it’s said to actually shorten your life span. Unfortunately, not getting a good night’s sleep can become a habit, which affects pretty much every area of your life; your mood, your relationships, your job, your mental health… the list goes on.
Enter TikTok. There’s a new TikTok hack circulating, started by TikToker Shapla Hoque (@shapla_11), where she puts lettuce and boiled water into a mug as a way of helping her sleep. And now, we even have a update video with all her dos and don’ts for making lettuce water before bedtime.
@shapla_11 if you can’t sleep, try this #lettucewater #insomnia #lifehacks #fyp
♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
Let’s start at the beginning. TikTok hacks have come in handy previously with tips like scoring the best seats on a plane and treating breakouts with bandaids, but this one, boiled lettuce to help you sleep, actually has science on its side.
A 2017 food science study stated that “Lactuca sativa” (lettuce), an annual herb that belongs to the Compositae family, is known for its medicinal value. Traditionally, lettuce has been suggested to have a sedative-hypnotic property.
“Lactucopicrin and lactucin are the major active compounds of lactucarium and were reported to have analgesic activity equal to or greater than that of ibuprofen in mice. They also showed a sedative activity as revealed by measuring the spontaneous movement in mice.”
“Romaine lettuce could provide extracts with sleep-potentiating activity. In addition, the antioxidant polyphenols being used as natural antioxidants of the brain against the oxidative damage could be obtained from these extracts.”
Shapla’s video garnered 4.8 million views and it shows her washing a handful of lettuce, shoving it into her superman mug, and then pouring boiling water over it. She lets it sit for a bit, before putting a peppermint tea bag in just in case lettuce water tastes gross, then she takes the lettuce out and sips it.
At first, it makes her “a bit drowsy” and then, she’s completely knocked out. A shot of her in bed with her eyes closed, she says “OK another update, lettuce has a crack because your sis is gone.”
In her follow-up video, @shapla_11 gives us some tips when undertaking our own lettuce-sleep hack.
@shapla_11 Reply to @tattooo_titch_tnt excuse my appearance I jus woke up lol #fyp #lettucewater #lifehacks
Here’s what we got:
How long does lettuce water take to make?
Shapla says that she left the lettuce in the boiling water to brew for about 10-15 minutes.
She also recommends that you don’t just boil the water in a kettle and pour it into a cup full of lettuce like she did in her original video. Instead, she says it’s better to do in a saucepan, to get the maximum effect and maximum lettuce leaf juice.
How long does it take for lettuce water to work?
In the video, Shapla says it took her about 40 mins to go to sleep after her initial lettuce-water trial. After 40 mins, she said she was completely knocked out.
Which type of lettuce should you use?
In the comments of her first video, she said that users were giving her recommendations of different types of lettuce to use for maximum effect. Apparently, it’s best to use wild lettuce or romaine lettuce, as they have higher levels of lactucarium, the snooze chemical. You can use any type of lettuce and it will probably work, but if you want the best sleep ever, we reckon trying the good stuff.
Should you add anything else to the water?
In her original TikTok, Shapla used peppermint tea in her water because she didn’t want to experience the “salad water taste”. But apparently, peppermint actually keeps you awake, so it’s best to stay away from that. You can use chamomile, or just plain water. According to Shapla, it doesn’t taste like much anyway.
Another TikToker tried the lettuce water hack to get her baby to sleep and the results were pretty cute.
@eol061915 Need baby to sleep at night try this part one #Lettucewater
♬ Agua (Music from “Sponge on the Run” Movie) – Tainy & J Balvin
The video shows her making lettuce water, then straining and adding cold water into a baby’s bathtub. She bathes her bub in lettuce water and… the last shot is of bub, peacefully asleep.
If you suffer from insomnia or find yourself unable to get to sleep one night, then this might actually be the answer to your prayers. There’s no harm in trying. You could even go viral in the process.
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