Could The “Sleepy Girl Mocktail” Help With Migraines?

If you’re among the one-billion-plus people in the world who get migraines, you know why they’re referred to as one of the “most disabling diseases on the planet.” For more than 90% of this cohort, migraines affect work, school, and socializing, and given that treatments are only sometimes effective and there’s currently no cure, it makes sense that many people with chronic migraines get creative in looking for relief.

Enter TikTok’s “sleepy girl mocktail,” a viral 2023 drink that’s making the rounds online once again as a possible migraine buster. First shared by creators @caleeshea and @gracie_norton, the drink is typically made of tart cherry juice, magnesium powder, and a mild, fizzy mixer such as prebiotic soda or sparkling water. The drink gained popularity a few years back for its tasty combination of ingredients and its use as a sleep aid.

But does the sleepy girl mocktail hold up as an over-the-counter migraine remedy? We asked an expert to weigh in.

Does the Sleepy Girl Mocktail Help With Migraines?

“While TikTok and other social media platforms are obviously not reliable sources of health information, surprisingly there actually is evidence that this drink could help relieve migraines,” says Caylee Clay, a registered dietitian-nutritionist and founder of the virtual nutrition practice Autoimmune Eats.

According to the American Migraine Foundation, two of the most common migraine triggers are stress and irregular sleep. Clay says the ingredients in the mocktail address these by promoting good, restful sleep, which in turn can decrease stress. In other words, the drink could offer preventative help in reducing triggers, but likely wouldn’t stop an active migraine in its tracks.

“Understanding your personal migraine triggers will help you figure out if this drink could actually be of help to you individually,” Clay says.

How Does It Work?

Tart cherry juice has been found to decrease inflammation and oxidative stress — an imbalance in the body that damages your cells and tissues — while increasing melatonin and tryptophan. Aside from being associated with Thanksgiving turkey, tryptophan is an amino acid that helps make melatonin, serotonin, and vitamin B3, but our bodies can’t produce tryptophan, so it’s important to include in your diet. Paired with the naturally relaxing effects of magnesium, the cherry juice can support a more sound sleep.

“If you are using alcohol to sleep at night or caffeine to get you going in the morning, this drink may support better sleep that allows you [to] reduce your intake of caffeine or alcohol,” Clark says. “Limiting or eliminating caffeine or alcohol can help with migraines.”

Additionally, if you like the mocktail enough to drink it regularly, the added fluids could also help stave off dehydration, addressing (you guessed it) another common migraine trigger.

Should You Try It?

“It’s important to remember that this drink may be worth trying, but it’s not a surefire remedy,” says Clay. Just as migraine triggers vary, remedies won’t affect everyone the same way. If issues like sleep quality, dehydration, and stress don’t affect your migraines, you may not see much of a difference. And sometimes removing certain ingredients from your diet, rather than adding them in, is what unlocks migraine relief.

“There are many [foods] that are known to trigger a migraine attack, and it’s important to find out which food or foods affect you personally,” Clay says.

One perk of the sleepy girl mocktail: The ingredients don’t require a prescription and are fairly easy to find, making it possible to test it before committing to a routine. But as with any supplement, Clay says, you should still check with your healthcare provider before incorporating magnesium to learn what type and dosage are best for you.

You should also consider whether sensitivities to any of the ingredients might affect your sleep, like the acidity in tart cherry juice, and if you’re a light sleeper — or have a small bladder — drinking extra fluids before bed could cause nighttime bathroom trips. “In this way, this mocktail could backfire and cause worse sleep, and therefore worse migraines,” Clay says.

The Bottom Line

For people who get migraines, the sleepy girl mocktail could bring preventative relief, depending on your migraine triggers.

Presented by BDG Studios