History Main / WarmMilkHelpsYouSleep

->'''Chakotay:''' Something to help me sleep. Got any ideas?\\
'''Neelix:''' I know humans think warm milk will do it. Frankly, I find it repulsive.
-->-- ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Unforgettable"

** In "Hollow Pursuits", it's said that Reg Barclay usually orders a glass of warm milk when he's in Ten Forward. Guinan seems to agree with the idea, as she tells Geordi [=LaForge=] when he chuckles at it.
---> '''Guinan:''' Warm milk helps you sleep, [=LaForge=]. You should try it.
* The page quote is from the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Unforgettable". Chakotay agrees with Nelix that warm milk is disgusting.

** One episode featured the babies imagining that they were in a noir story a la ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''. Warm milk was used by Lil's FemmeFatale character as the equivalent of a drugged drink for Tommy's detective character.

--> '''Orderly''': You can trouble me for a warm glass of ''shut the hell up!'' Now, you will go to sleep or I will put you to sleep. Check out the name tag. You're in my world now, grandma. \\
'''Mrs.Gilmore''': Oh, dear.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

** In one of the alternate timelines Homer creates in "Treehouse of Horror V", Ned Flanders is supreme ruler of the Earth. One of his methods of maintaining control is reprogramming people by subjecting them to "a glass of warm milk, a little nap, and a total frontal lobotomy."

This can be TruthInTelevision, medically speaking. Milk has opiate precursors in it, which is part of the reason why it tends to be a go-to sleep aid for some people, especially since heating the milk seems to help make said opiates a little more effective. It also contains the amino acid tryptophan which has a relaxing and calming effect. However, its effectiveness can greatly vary from person to person.

** While in Siberia, the solution for getting into the village food shed without begin bothered by the AngryGuardDog is heating up the milk pouch Pink finds earlier in the game, and then give it to the dog. He will drink the milk and promptly fall asleep. You can also try to give the dog the milk while it's still cold, but this only results in him throwing the pouch back at Pink.

Subtrope of ComfortFood. A very likely trope to show up in an InsomniaEpisode. A character who offers warm milk is frequently established as a caregiver type, if not a ParentalSubstitute. It can also be used to deliberately [[SlippingAMickey getting a person to go to sleep]].

* In ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'', Yoshikage Kira mentions drinking warm milk before bed every night to help him sleep during his monologue about living a quiet life.

* Inverted in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'', where Hayate gives Signum some warm milk to help her wake up rather than fall asleep.

This can be TruthInTelevision, medically speaking. Milk has natural morphine in it, which is part of the reason why it tends to be a go-to sleep aid for some people, especially since heating the milk seems to help make said natural morphine a little more effective. It also contains the amino acid tryptophan which has a relaxing and calming effect. However, its effectiveness can greatly vary from person to person.

This can be TruthInTelevision, medically speaking. Milk has natural morphine in it, which is part of the reason why it tends to be a go-to sleep aid for some people, especially since heating the milk seems to help make said natural morphine a little more effective. It also contains the amino acid tryptophan. However, its effectiveness can greatly vary from person to person.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': when Arya Stark commits her first killing since she joined the Faceless Men, the master of the guild chastises her for doing it out of her own motives and gives her a glass of warm milk before she goes to sleep. The milk turns out to be spiked with something that makes Arya temporarily blind; fans theoretized that it was punishment for killing without orders, but it turned out it's just part of the training.

* On ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Picard's Aunt Adele has a recipe for steamed milk that he shares with Beverly Crusher. She then shares it with Will Riker.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Who Shot Mister Burns?", Chief Wiggum plans to drink some coffee to keep himself awake. However, he can't find any coffee, so he drinks a carton of warm cream instead. This naturally has the opposite effect.

Subtrope of ComfortFood. A very likely trope to show up in a InsomniaEpisode. A character who offers warm milk is frequently established as a caregiver type, if not a ParentalSubstitute. It can also be used to deliberately [[SlippingAMickey getting a person to go to sleep]].

** In "Hollow Pursuits", it's said that Reg Barclay usually orders a glass of warm milk when he's in Ten Forward.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In ''Pasture Bedtime'', in order to ditch Liam so they can go to Girl Jordan's pool party, Lincoln and friends convince Liam to drink a glass of fresh goat milk, which they themselves [[DiscreetDrinkDisposal quickly dispose]] so only he drinks it. It works and he falls asleep.

In one of the alternate timelines Homer creates in "Treehouse of Horror V", Ned Flanders is supreme ruler of the Earth. One of his methods of maintaining control is reprogramming people by subjecting them to "a glass of warm milk, a little nap, and a total frontal lobotomy."

* In ''FilmHappyGilmore'', Happy's just dropped his grandmother off at a nursing home. She asks the orderly for some warm milk to help her out with the nap he's making her take, but he coldly turns her down.

* In an Ernest PWorrell commercial, Ernest wakes Vern up in the middle of the night to tell him he can't sleep, and asks to borrow a glass of milk to help him sleep, pointing out that milk contains calcium, minerals, vitamins, "And none of that caffine to keep ya awake all night."

* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'': In a Sunday strip shortly before the 2004 Presidential Election, Opus calls on a rental grandmother to care for and comfort him on election night. When the grandmother arrives, he was heating up a glass of milk to help calm him down, and offers her a glass as well (though she requests warm tea with lemon).
* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' for [[http://assets.amuniversal.com/14afadd0ac7801314831005056a9545d April 29, 2014]]. Satchel the dog hasn't slept for two days, so his master Rob Wilco prepares sleep aids such as warm blankets, soft music and warm milk.

* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken''. In the episode, "Stay Awake," Chicken eats a bowl of caffine-enriched coffee cereal, that includes a side effect of three-night sleep deprivation. Sure enough, after three nights of being hopped up on caffine, and sleep deprivation, Chicken loses his mind and goes berserk throughout the city; Cow tries everything in the book (literally) to help Chicken fall asleep, from knocking him out with bricks, to duct-taping his eyes shut, to rocking him like a baby, to hog-tying to his bed, to counting sheep, until she finally finds the sure-fire cure: warm milk. As Chicken wigs out on the top of a skyscraper, Super Cow comes to the rescue and shoots warm milk into his mouth, filling his stomach (and then some); she then takes him home and puts him to bed, where he ''finally'' falls asleep.
* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': In the ''US Acres'' episode "Sleepytime Pig", Orson is unable to go to sleep, so Wade offers him an entire pailful of warm milk as one of many methods to try to help Orson sleep. After Orson drinks the entire pail, he only moos like a cow instead, making this a subversion.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. Invoked in an episode where Ed starts sleep walking and eating all the food he can get into his mouth one night. The episode title is, "A Glass of Warm Ed."

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''. In the episode, "Sailing the Seven Zzzs," Mr. Bighead starts sleep walking, which is enduced by nightmares of a childhood experience of bombing in a school play due to stagefright. Because he was a pirate in the play, as he sleepwalks, he dreams of being a pirate, and continually pillages Rocko for a treasure map; though Rocko can see that he's sleepwalking, and tries to calm him down, among other ways, by offering a glass of warm milk.

** In the episode "Suds", Spongebob goes to the kitchen to whip up some warm milk and a ''sea''nut butter sandwich to make him sleep again. One bite of the sandwich and he promptly goes to sleep on the table, spilling his milk, and leaving the fridge door open, thus kicking off the plot.
** In the episode "Fear of a Krabby Patty", after Spongebob experiences hallucinations of giant Krabby Patties, Plankton, dressed as a therapist, hypnotizes him to sleep, and in the dream, a giant Krabby Patty brings Spongebob a cookie pizza and a glass of chocolate milk to comfort him.
--->'''Spongebob:''' The king of flavored dairy drinks! ''[he drinks it quickly]''

This can be TruthInTelevision, medically speaking. Milk has natural morphine in it, which is part of the reason why it tends to be a go-to sleep aid for some people, especially since heating the milk seems to help make said natural morphine a little more effective. It also contains the amino acid tryptophan. However, it's effectiveness can greatly vary from person to person.

->'''Chakotay:''' Something to help me sleep. Got any ideas?
->'''Neelix:''' I know humans think warm milk will do it. Frankly, I find it repulsive.
-->''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', episode "Unforgettable"

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': Teal'c, at one point, is experienceing dufficulty undergoing kelno'reem (a trance state Jaffa enter instead of sleeping. Carter suggets a glass of warm milk. Teal'c's response, [[TheComicallySerious delivered in usual stoic, deadpan tone:]]
-->'''Teal'c''': I would prefer not to consume bovine lactose at ''any'' temperature.

* ''VideoGame/PinkPantherHokusPokusPink'': While in Siberia, the solution for getting into the village food shed without begin bothered by the AngryGuardDog is heating up the milk pouch Pink finds earlier in the game, and then give it to the dog. He will drink the milk and promptly fall asleep. You can also try to give the dog the milk while it's still cold, but this only results in him throwing the pouch back at Pink.

* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'':"How to Sleep" has Goofy trying to sleep by drinking warm milk, but it is too hot for him.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':

--> '''Spongebob''': The king of flavored dairy drinks! ''[he drinks it quickly]''