This Simple Dietary Trick Could Improve Your Sleep in 24 Hours

From counting sheep to using white noise machines and weighted blankets, people have tried countless strategies to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep disruptions can have wide-ranging negative effects, including problems with cardiovascular and metabolic health, memory, learning, productivity, mood regulation, and relationships, the journal Sleep Health reported.

It turns out that a powerful tool for better sleep may have been hiding in plain sight—in the produce aisle. A new study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University found that eating more fruits and vegetables during the day was linked to better sleep quality that same night.

“Dietary modifications could be a new, natural, and cost-effective approach to achieve better sleep,” said co-senior author Esra Tasali, MD, director of the UChicago Sleep Center. “The temporal associations and objectively-measured outcomes in this study represent crucial steps toward filling a gap in important public health knowledge.”

Research has shown that getting too little sleep can lead people to choose diets higher in fat and sugar. But while sleep’s impact on health and productivity is well documented, much less is known about how diet influences sleep patterns.

Earlier observational studies linked high fruit and vegetable intake with better self-reported sleep quality. However, this new study is the first to show a direct connection between the food someone eats during the day and how well they sleep that night, based on objective data.

In the study, healthy young adults recorded their daily food intake using an app and wore wrist monitors that tracked their sleep. The researchers focused on “sleep fragmentation,” a measure of how often a person wakes up or transitions from deep to light sleep during the night.

The researchers found that each day’s diet was correlated with meaningful differences in the subsequent night’s sleep. Participants who ate more fruits and vegetables during the day tended to have deeper, more uninterrupted sleep that same night, as did those who consumed more healthy carbohydrates like whole grains.

Based on their findings and statistical modeling, the researchers estimate that people who eat the CDC-recommended five cups of fruits and veggies per day could experience a 16 percent improvement in sleep quality compared to people who consume no fruits or vegetables.

“16 percent is a highly significant difference,” Tasali said. “It’s remarkable that such a meaningful change could be observed within less than 24 hours.”

Future studies will help establish causation, broaden the findings across diverse populations, and examine the underlying mechanisms of digestion, neurology, and metabolism that could explain the positive impact of fruits and vegetables on sleep quality. But based on current data, the experts confidently advise that regularly eating a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables is best for long-term sleep health.

“People are always asking me if there are things they can eat that will help them sleep better,” said co-senior author Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia. “Small changes can impact sleep. That is empowering — better rest is within your control.”

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