Got milk? A new study finds cow's milk produced at night to be a possible treatment for anxiety and insomnia.
If you've tried drinking warm milk to help you fall asleep at night but find yourself still wide awake, perhaps it was milked at the wrong time. Wall Street Journal reports that a new study finds an unusual cure for anxiety and insomnia: "night milk". This would be milk collected from cows at night. Researchers say that night milk has enhanced sedative effects compared to milk produced during daytime.
According to a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, researchers in South Korea fed lab mice varied doses of milk in powdered form from cow's milk collected during the day and night. After which, two control groups of mice were given injections of diazepam or regular drinking water.
Night milk was found to contain significantly more levels of tryptophan and melatonin. Tryptophan is a sleep-inducing compound while melatonin is a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Analysis of the powder showed that night milk contains 24 percent more tryptophan and almost ten times more melatonin compared to the day milk.
After an hour of treatment, the mice underwent a series of tests. It was found out that mice that have taken night milk were obviously less active than either the mice that fed with day milk or water-fed control group. Meanwhile, the diazepam-treated mice were the least active among the group. On average, mice fed with night milk fell four to five times, twice as often as mice that were fed day milk. As expected, the diazepam group fell down the most while water-fed control just fell twice.
Meanwhile, Newser reports that those mice fed with night milk were most highly found to explore open space, an indication of reduced anxiety. The mice injected with diazepam also manifested the same traits.
The study admits limitations since night milk was just administered to lab mice. However, New Zealand Herald reports that there exists powdered night milk called iNdream3 that is produced by Synlait. Synlait and Otago University has conducted a sleep trial and found that the milk reduced time to fall asleep and can induce the deepest sleep. However, this is only available in South Korea.
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