Few things are as maddening as lying awake when you desperately need rest. From white noise machines to weighted blankets, many of us have tried all sorts of tricks to nod off more easily. But new research suggests that a simpler – and healthier – solution could be sitting right on our plates.
Scientists from the University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University have found that eating more fruit and vegetables during the day is linked to longer, more restful sleep that same night.
“Dietary modifications could be a new, natural and cost-effective approach to achieve better sleep,” said Dr Esra Tasali, co-senior author of the study and director of the UChicago Sleep Center. “These findings fill an important gap by showing how what we eat can affect how well we sleep – almost immediately.”
For the study, healthy young adults recorded their daily meals using a smartphone app and wore wrist monitors to track their sleep. The researchers focused on 'sleep fragmentation', a measure of how often someone wakes or shifts between lighter and deeper stages of sleep.
Those who ate more fruit, vegetables and complex carbohydrates – such as whole grains – enjoyed longer periods of deep, uninterrupted rest. The difference was striking: participants who met the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of five cups of fruit and vegetables a day saw an average 16 per cent improvement in sleep quality compared with those who ate none.
“Sixteen per cent is a highly significant difference,” said Tasali. “It’s remarkable that such a meaningful change can happen within less than 24 hours.”
The findings add to growing evidence that diet and sleep are closely intertwined – reminding us that better rest might begin not in the bedroom, but at the dinner table.
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Read the full study in Sleep Health: Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults