By As a child, I remember my mom giving us warm milk before bedtime. Sometimes it would turn into a treat, mixed with chocolate powder. I was not too fond of drinking milk, but I was repeatedly told that it would help me sleep better. Fast forward today, as a Sleep physician, I get asked often; Does warm milk help you sleep better?
Just like it was at my home, it has been a tradition in many others, for many decades. But does drinking a warm glass of milk really help you sleep better? Many would call it an old wives’ tale, while some providers would push for a glass of milk. Milk has two nutrients that theoretically could induce sleep; Melatonin and L-tryptophan. Melatonin, a widely popular over the counter sleep aid, is a hormone naturally produced by the body that helps induce sleep. Tryptophan is a precursor to melatonin. So logically speaking, milk should be a good sleep aid. But in reality, the levels of melatonin produced by consumption of one glass of milk, is not high enough to impact your sleep.
So why does it seem to work for some individuals? Our minds associate certain routines and triggers to signal that it is time to sleep. If you were given a glass of warm milk to drink before bedtime as a child, chances are that it became a part of your nightly routine and triggered sleep on consumption. We call this psychological linking. If your nightly routine included reading at night, chances are that it may trigger sleep the same way. It would be highly unlikely that if milk wasn’t a nightly routine before, drinking it now would help you any sleep better.
Scientifically speaking, there aren’t any good evidence based studies that could link milk and sleep. A systemic review done in 2020, suggested that a well balanced diet that included milk could be effective in improving sleep quality (Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2020 Dec 16;17(24):9440).
MYTH: DOES WARM MILK HELP YOU SLEEP?
ANSWER: NO
To answer this myth, generally speaking drinking a warm glass of Milk would most likely not help you sleep better. If you suffer from lactose intolerance, then definitely not. But like discussed above, if it has been a bedtime routine for you for a very long time, it may help trigger that psychological link.
References:
1. Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2020 Dec 16;17(24):9440
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