aAbout 1 in 3 Americans say they are sleep deprived, and these deficits have been linked to serious illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and depression. Certain eating patterns can lead to more sleep, which translates to healthier, more fulfilling lives.
A good night’s sleep also stabilizes your body’s hunger hormones, so you’re less likely to snack impulsively the next day. “It’s a cycle,” says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of nutrition and director of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research. “When you eat better, you sleep better and you’re more rested. And that helps you make better decisions about your diet.”
This is what you can eat to sleep better.
Using Tryptophan the Right Way
The key to improving sleep is choosing a diet rich in sleep-promoting substances. This doesn’t come down to one food or ingredient. “It’s more of a holistic profile with different beneficial components,” says St-Onge.
One of these is tryptophan, a building block of proteins. The body doesn’t make any of it. Instead, we get tryptophan from food: yes, turkey, but also fish, eggs, yogurt, and nuts like walnuts, to name a few. Once eaten, tryptophan travels from the blood to the brain and becomes melatonin, the hormone that causes sleepiness before bed.
There’s a problem, though: Not much tryptophan gets into the brain when other substances are competing for entry. But when we combine tryptophan-containing foods with healthy carbohydrates, like lentils or fruit, cells throughout our bodies gobble up the competitors and make way for tryptophan.
“We need tryptophan in combination with a carbohydrate-rich diet,” says Arman Arab, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School who specializes in nutrition.
The Mediterranean diet is a regimen packed with both tryptophan and healthy carbohydrates, those high in fiber. Like carbohydrates, nutrients like zinc, B vitamins, and magnesium play a key role in converting tryptophan into melatonin for better sleep, and the Mediterranean diet provides each of these components. Spinach, barley, and whole wheat are good partners for tryptophan-rich foods. Arab recently found that people who follow the Mediterranean diet have better sleep quality and less insomnia. St-Onge has investigated similar connections.
Avoid foods that cause inflammation
An ideal diet eliminates foods with substances that can disrupt your sleep. They include fewer healthy carbohydrates, such as low-fiber, high-sugar cereals, bagels and fruit juices. People who eat unhealthy carbohydrates wake up more often during the night, according to St-Onge’s research.
When eaten in large quantities, foods high in saturated fats (such as beef and chicken with skin) can also contribute to sleep problems.
One common denominator between unhealthy carbs and saturated fats is that they both cause inflammation in the body, a problem that’s linked to poorer sleep quality and duration, Arab says. A diet heavy in these foods can also lead to weight gain, which can cause sleep apnea and pressure on the diaphragm, further disrupting sleep.
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People can use the Dietary Inflammatory Index to score their daily consumption of inflammatory foods. Scores improve with plenty of healthy, unsaturated fats, such as those found in salmon, nuts, and seeds. These foods are anti-inflammatory and are common in the Mediterranean diet, another reason why this diet promotes sleep.
A wide variety of fruits and vegetables is optimal, says Erica Jansen, an assistant professor of nutritional epidemiology at the University of Michigan. The variety can spread out your exposure to a single toxin, such as pesticides or heavy metals, that can disrupt sleep, and it ensures adequate polyphenols and micronutrients that support sleep, in part by reducing inflammation. Jansen found that when women increased their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables by three servings, their sleep quality and insomnia symptoms improved dramatically.
Try Other Approaches with Sleep ‘Superfoods’
While the Mediterranean regimen is supported by the most research, other approaches may be just as beneficial if they provide the same sleep-promoting nutrients and compounds. Aim for diets high in vegetables, lower-sugar fruits, plant proteins, and unsaturated fats. “Such patterns likely affect sleep in the same way” as the Mediterranean approach, St-Onge says.
These strategies include the USDA’s Healthy Eating Index and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, or DASH. Arab didn’t find a strong link between DASH and fewer insomnia symptoms, but other research suggests it may be helpful. The Chinese Healthy Eating Index, another eating pattern heavy on sleep-promoting ingredients, is also associated with good sleep.
Some effects vary from person to person, so plug and play items to find out what improves your sleep, even if they’re not a staple of a particular diet. One set of studies points to Montmorency tart cherry juice, for example. It’s packed with melatonin, as are kiwifruit, nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds, edamame, tofu, and dairy.
Many high-fiber foods can be found outside of the Mediterranean diet. These sleep-promoting foods include black beans, split peas, sweet potatoes, chia seeds, and flaxseeds.
Start eating early, stop eating early
As with most things in life, timing is important. Research shows that meals too close to bedtime can interfere with sleep. It is important to finish the day’s meals a few hours before bedtime.
This last meal can consist of a plant-based protein like tofu, which is filling, contains tryptophan, and keeps inflammation low, and a healthy carbohydrate like chickpeas to help tryptophan pass to the brain. Plan to eat it 2-4 hours before bedtime; that’s how long it takes for tryptophan levels to peak in the body.
According to Jansen, there is a good chance that heavy foods, or foods with a lot of sugar or spices, right before bedtime will cause a bloated feeling, spikes in blood sugar levels and a night of tossing and turning.
Sleep is also disrupted on the other side: being really hungry before bed. To avoid this scenario, get a head start on food in the morning. “Everywhere we look, people who eat breakfast sleep better,” says St-Onge. Keep the same timing as much as possible every day, adds Jansen. “Keeping a consistent pattern is really important for sleep.”
Try the liquid loophole in the law
There is one exception to the rule about packing food a few hours before bed. Pouring some of your favorite liquids through that hole could be a few. The research is inconclusive, but several teas, such as chamomile and lemon balm, have relaxing compounds that appear to improve sleep, at least for some “super responders,” St-Onge says. Low-fat milk, which is rich in tryptophan, may also help. “It doesn’t hurt to try them” about an hour before bed; they’re absorbed faster than food.
Melatonin supplements are a different story. While these pills can help with occasional bouts of insomnia or jet lag, even small doses “go beyond what’s needed to sleep,” an excess that can cause health problems if taken regularly, Jansen explains.
Feed your gut bacteria
Food affects the bacteria in your digestive tract, called the microbiome, and the right bacteria can help reduce inflammation. In theory, “If we can improve our microbiota, that could reduce inflammation in the body and lead to better sleep,” Arab says.
Some early research suggests that certain gut bacteria play a role in converting tryptophan into sleep hormones. A 2022 study found that mice fed prebiotics had more rapid eye movement and other relaxing types of sleep. According to a recent research review, consuming prebiotics and probiotics improves sleep quality in humans.
Instead of probiotic supplements, eating yogurt, kimchi and other fermented foods will support the microbiome as part of a natural, healthy diet. More research is needed on “sleepbiotics,” whether they’re pills or foods, to understand their effects on sleep, Jansen says.
Be consistent
People who follow these diets regularly have better sleep outcomes than those who just dabble in them, studies show. Whatever sleep-promoting diet you choose, stick with it. For the biggest improvements in sleep, “make sure you’re eating a healthy diet day in and day out,” St-Onge says. “Give it a week or two” before expecting benefits.
Eat vegetables for breakfast
The relationship between diet and sleep works both ways. Just as a healthy diet with sleep-promoting substances leads to better sleep, better sleep leads to healthier food choices. Likewise, less sleep alters hunger hormones for worse decisions. “After you’ve had a bad night’s sleep, you have to be extra vigilant about a healthy diet to get back on track,” St-Onge says.
Jansen is a good example. With her one-year-old disrupting her sleep, “I keep in mind that because I’ve been up all night, I’m going to crave more energy-dense foods,” she says. “So I try not to give in to that.”
She also eats a healthy breakfast to “start off well with nutrition.” A related strategy for sleep deprivation is to start the day with a vegetarian entree. When people eat a salad or other vegetable for a high-carb breakfast, their appetite and blood sugar levels are more stable the rest of the day. This could prevent a cycle of multiple nights of bad sleep and bad nutrition. “You can break the cycle,” St-Onge says.