What You Eat Is Just As Critical For Quality Sleep As A Dark, Quiet Room
There are a few tried-and-true habits that are crucial for sleeping well. Things like reducing screen time before bed, keeping your bedroom dark and quiet, and setting a consistent sleep and wake schedule are all key factors of improving the quality of your sleep. Another (underrated) factor is diet.
Yes, what you eat can either help or hurt your zzz’s. And researchers of a new study investigated just how much influence food has1 compared to those traditional sleep hygiene habits. (Hint: What you eat matters a lot.)
About the study
Japanese researchers tracked people’s sleep habits and analyzed 6 factors affecting daytime drowsiness, ability to fall asleep, and ease of waking up. Those 6 factors included:
- Stress (like anxiety or irritability)
- Bedtime conditions (including caffeine or alcohol use, screen time, and sleep environment)
- Weather condition
- Physical characteristics (like blood pressure)
- Exercise habits
- Dietary habits
To capture information about diet, each study participant answered a questionnaire about their typical eating patterns over the past year.
They were asked about 130 different foods that were grouped into 12 categories: vegetables, fruits, cereals, seafood, meat, dairy, seaweed, and more. All participants were living in Japan as well, where typical intake of seaweed is quite high.
Diet is just as important as other sleep habits
So how did diet stack up?
The results showed that dietary habits had effect sizes just as large as exercise and bedtime conditions, which are two of the most commonly recommended strategies for better sleep. Research shows that regular exercise (not too close to bed) is linked to better sleep.
In other words, what participants ate on a regular basis influenced whether they felt drowsy during the day or how easily they fell asleep and woke up, to the same degree as whether they exercised or avoided screens before bed.
What’s interesting is that the study revealed seasonal and sex-based differences in how and what foods impact sleep.
- Seaweed intake was linked to reduced daytime sleepiness for women, but not men. In fact, seaweed seemed to increase wakefulness in men.
- Vegetables helped women fall asleep more easily.
These findings highlight how certain foods may play unique roles in sleep. But researchers stress that it wasn’t just one food group that made the difference, rather, it was overall dietary intake that consistently shaped sleep quality and daytime alertness.
How to eat for better sleep
So what does a sleep-supportive diet look like? While this study indicates that diet does influence sleep, the results don’t translate directly into nutrition recommendations (although it’s a good reminder to eat more vegetables, including seaweed!).
Pulling from previous research, these dietary habits have been more specifically shown to improve sleep.
- Fiber-rich foods: A low-fiber diet is consistently linked to less restorative sleep. Boost your fiber intake with foods like avocados, chia seeds, and raspberries (here’s our full list of high-fiber foods) or supplements.
- Proteins: High-quality protein, like fish, poultry, eggs, and turkey help stabilize blood sugar and provide amino acids like tryptophan, a building block for melatonin and serotonin.
- Magnesium-rich foods: Magnesium is referred to as the anti-stress mineral. It helps promote relaxation of the nervous system and muscles, making it easier to fall and stay asleep.* Bump-up your intake of foods like pumpkin seeds and leafy greens. For even more targeted support, consider a magnesium supplement like this one.* (It pairs magnesium with tart cherry powder and works even better than a sleepy girl mocktail).
Timing still matters though! Large, high-fat, or sugary meals too close to bedtime can disrupt your circadian rhythm and lead to restless sleep.
The takeaway
Sleep is complex, and many factors influence it. But this study makes it clear that what you eat matters just as much as your bedtime routine.
