Thread by @GidMK

This is one of my favourite things of the year

People on Tiktok are drinking lettuce water because of a rumour it helps you sleep

This is all apparently based on a 2013 study that looked at lettuce leaf/seed extracts IN MICE @justsaysinmice

Now, I should say that the original rumour that started on Tiktok may not be entirely due to this study. The Pedestrian article says that this is the research backing up the claim, but there's no evidence that's true

Nevertheless, this study is BRILLIANT:

- extracted substances from lettuce leaf/seeds
- gave extract to mice
- sedated mice
- measured sleep times (slight difference)

And sure, whatever - this is basic science research at it's most normal. They are testing a new technique to aid with a common problem

Except, look at the abstract and title. No mice there!

And while there is other research that supports the assertion that lettuce EXTRACT could potentially help with sleep, it's worth noting that the EXTRACT featured in these studies is on the order of .35-2kg of lettuce per dose

For example, this study used lettuce seed oil at 1g concentrations, and found a very modest benefit for people with insomnia. Hard to convert exactly into boiled lettuce amounts, but it's a lot ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Anyway, it's quite funny that people are drinking lettuce water, very unlikely to be harmful, but also there does not appear to be any scientific rationale for doing so

That being said, if you DO want to try lettuce to improve your sleep based on the trial from Pedestrian, dry about 1kg of lettuce and seeds before crushing it and making it into a tea

That'll give you somewhere around 1 dose. Use with pentobarbitol for best effect