Dark milk lightens sleep woes

Canterbury’s Synlait Milk has discovered that if you milk cows after the sun has gone down, and then again in a darkened shed before it comes up, the milk has higher levels of the hormone melatonin, known to help regulate sleep cycles.

Synlait research manager Simon Causer says melatonin levels in night milk can be four-ten times higher than in normal milk.

Dozens of Canterbury farms have now started adjusting their milking schedules as agreed with Synlait to meet special orders of dark milk, he says.