Your Plate Could Be Sabotaging Your Sleep—Here's What to Eat Instead

Yahoo

25-06-2025

New research suggests that tweaking your diet may help support good sleep.
Fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs seem to be the most helpful.
Doctors stress that this isn't the only thing you should do for good sleep.
Getting a good night's sleep seems easy in theory—you just crash into bed and fall asleep. But sleep is a complex process, and it doesn't come as easily for some as it does for others. In fact, data suggest that nearly 37% of American adults don't get enough sleep, putting them at risk for a host of health issues. Now, new research suggests that eating certain foods may help you get better sleep.
Meet the experts Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Ph.D., study co-author and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; W. Christopher Winter, M.D., is a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast
If you're consistently struggling with sleep, it's important to see a doctor for a proper evaluation to determine what could be behind this. But adjusting your diet is a simple move that could make an impact. Here's what's behind the latest findings, plus why healthcare professionals aren't shocked.
For the small study, which was published in the journal Sleep Health, researchers recruited 34 healthy young adults with no known sleep problems. The study participants logged what they ate each day in an app and wore a wrist monitor that tracked their sleep patterns.
After crunching the data, the researchers discovered that what the participants ate each day had an impact on how well they slept at night. Those who ate more fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates (like whole grains and legumes), but little to no added sugar, during the day had fewer disruptions in their sleep compared to people who didn't have as much of those foods. There was also a link between having foods with high levels of fiber and magnesium with fewer sleep disruptions.
The researchers estimated that, compared to someone who doesn't eat any fruits and vegetables, those who have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommended five cups of produce a day could have up to a 16% boost in sleep quality.
'These findings suggest that diets rich in complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables may promote better sleep health,' the researchers wrote in the conclusion.
While the study just found an association between eating a healthy diet and good sleep, there are a few theories on what could be behind this.
One is that the carbs found in fruits and vegetables help the brain absorb the amino acid tryptophan. That can spark a process that leads to a higher production of melatonin, a hormone that supports sleep, explains Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Ph.D., study co-author and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables also deliver fiber, which is linked with more deep sleep and less light sleep, St-Onge says. 'Those plant foods also contain 'phytomelatonin'—the plant version of human melatonin—that can contribute to melatonin levels and improve our ability to fall asleep and sustain restful sleep throughout the night,' St-Onge says.
Certain nutrients in some produce and complex carbs may help support good sleep, too. Tryptophan, along with magnesium, which is found in a lot of plant-based foods like pumpkin and chia seeds, almonds, spinach, and peanuts, may be helpful, St-Onge points out. Some complex carbs like oats, along with produce like tart cherries, grapes, and bananas, are also high in melatonin, which can support sleep.
Eating more fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs can also have a good influence on your gut microbiome and the neurotransmitters it produces, which could enhance sleep, says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast.
It's a stretch to say that the solution to your sleep woes is simply eating more complex carbs, fruits, and vegetables. Even the study found that adding these to your diet may lead to a 16% boost in sleep—that's a significant amount, but it's not going to radically change your night. Also, this was an observational study, so it can be hard to say for sure what the data means, Dr. Winter points out.
'Adding more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains to the diet is a good place to start, as our data show that this is associated with less disrupted sleep,' St-Onge says. 'But we must also pay attention to other things in the diet that can sabotage efforts for better sleep.'
Dr. Winter agrees. 'Diet is one cog in a much bigger machine that includes ensuring adequate sleep amount, consistent timing, regular exercise and light exposure, avoiding things detrimental to sleep—alcohol, screens—and managing stress and mood in a positive way,' he says. 'Will diet help move the needle a little? Most likely. Will it solve significant sleep struggles? Doubtful, but never hurts to try.'
Experts recommend thinking of dietary tweaks as one part of your healthy sleep toolkit. The CDC also recommends making these moves to support good sleep:
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
Keep your bedroom quiet, relaxing, and at a cool temperature.
Turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
Avoid large meals and alcohol before bedtime.
Avoid caffeine in the afternoon or evening.
Exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.
St-Onge also recommends cutting back on how much processed meat you eat and limiting liquids at night (having too much before bed can increase the odds you'll get up to pee). 'That said, those recommendations were not provided to our participants and we still saw better sleep with higher fruit and vegetable intakes,' she says.
If you've tried all of this and your sleep still isn't great, it's time to rope in a healthcare professional. They can give you a proper evaluation to try to figure out what's going on with your sleep—and come up with a solution from there.
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