5 eating habits that can help you sleep better at night

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Sign up for Life Kit's Guide to Better Sleep, a limited-run newsletter series. Over nan people of a week, we'll nonstop you science-backed strategies to thief you slumber better, deeper and longer.

Want amended slumber astatine night? You whitethorn request to rethink your eating habits, opportunity slumber specialists.

Noshing connected a elephantine cheeseburger and drinking a boozy cocktail correct earlier bed, for example, whitethorn disrupt your nighttime rest. And snacking connected a vessel of cherries alternatively of, say, a sweetener cookie, whitethorn let for much restful sleep.

"What you eat, successful position of nutrients, fats, sweetener and fiber, tin each play a domiciled successful slumber value astatine night," says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a nutrition intelligence and interrogator astatine Columbia University and nan co-author of nan cookbook Eat Better, Sleep Better.

We asked slumber researchers to stock science-backed dietary practices that amended sleep. Here are their do's and don'ts.

DO activity retired foods rich | successful tryptophan  

Tryptophan is an amino acerb we get from food, and it's converted to serotonin and melatonin successful nan brain, chemicals successful our bodies that play an important domiciled successful sleep, says St-Onge.

"Melatonin is important for helping 1 autumn dormant and stay dormant passim nan night," St-Onge says. "Serotonin makes group consciousness happy and is related to our sleep-wake cycle."

You tin find tryptophan successful almonds, barley, brownish rice, chia seeds, lentils, oats, pumpkin seeds, salmon, tofu, turkey, walnuts, achromatic beans and yogurt. 

But don't presume that eating these foods will make you instantly sleepy. Tryptophan isn't a sedative, St-Onge says. Work these ingredients into your fare to beforehand healthier slumber complete time.

Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a nutrition scientist, shares a database of her apical 20 sleep-supporting ingredients successful her cookbook, Eat Better, Sleep Better: almonds, bananas, barley, brownish rice, cherries, chia seeds, extra-virgin oliva oil, ginger, lentils, oats, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, salmon, spinach, tofu, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, achromatic beans and yogurt. Many incorporate aggregate nutrients to amended sleep. Photographs by tbralnina, AnnaPustynnikova, bergamont/Getty Images
/Collage by NPR hide caption

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Photographs by tbralnina, AnnaPustynnikova, bergamont/Getty Images
/Collage by NPR

DO switch sugary and processed foods for fruits and vegetables

One of nan champion ways to amended slumber wellness is to eat much fruits and vegetables, says St-Onge. "Add much vegetables to your recipes. Swap much processed, refined nutrient products pinch a portion of fruit."

Many fruits and veggies are "good sources for aggregate sleep-supporting nutrients," St-Onge says. That includes serotonin, melatonin and micronutrients for illustration magnesium, vitamin B6 and folate, which besides thief nan assemblage to nutrient melatonin.

They're besides a awesome root of fiber. Through her research, St-Onge has recovered that group who person precocious fibre diets thin to slumber much deeply.

"Eventually, [those patient swaps] will commencement to return nan spot of much refined carbohydrates," which, on pinch added sugars, tin disrupt your sleep," says St-Onge. In a 2020 study, St-Onge and her colleagues recovered that "women who had much refined carbohydrates successful their fare and much added sugars had a higher consequence of insomnia."

St-Onge has a database of what she calls "powerhouse ingredients" successful her cookbook. "Many of these person studies that support their benefits for sleep," she says. Here are conscionable a few:

Bananas: Fiber, analyzable carbohydrates, serotonin, melatonin, magnesium, vitamin B6
Cherries: Fiber, analyzable carbohydrates, melatonin
Pineapple: Fiber, analyzable carbohydrates, serotonin, melatonin
Spinach: Fiber, folate
Tomatoes: Fiber, analyzable carbohydrates, melatonin, vitamin B6

To beforehand sleep, nan American Academy of Sleep Medicine says to debar caffeine successful nan precocious day and evening. You'll besides want to see keeping an oculus connected nan timepiece erstwhile drinking alcohol. Avoid it correct earlier furniture for much restful sleep, says Michael Grandner, a scientist and slumber interrogator astatine nan University of Arizona. Photo illustration by Beck Harlan/NPR hide caption

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Photo illustration by Beck Harlan/NPR

DO debar caffeine successful nan precocious day and evening 

If you are successful nan wont of drinking an day java to springiness you that buzz you request to powerfulness done nan remainder of your day, cognize that nan caffeine will impact your sleep.

Caffeine makes you consciousness alert because it blocks adenosine, a chemic that builds up successful nan assemblage during nan time and makes you consciousness sleepy astatine night.

Caffeine tin besides instrumentality astir successful your assemblage for a while. In a Life Kit episode, slumber researcher Matthew Walker said that caffeine has a half-life of astir six hours successful astir people. That intends if you person a coffee, beverage aliases an power portion astatine 5 p.m., astir half of that caffeine whitethorn still beryllium successful your assemblage astatine 11 p.m.

And it tin really trim nan magnitude of slumber you get astatine night. One study from 2013 recovered that consuming 400 milligrams of caffeine (that's astir 2 power drinks) six hours earlier bedtime reduced full slumber clip by 1 hour.

Sensitivity to caffeine varies, but the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says to debar caffeine successful nan precocious day and evening. Experiment pinch nan timing that useful champion for you. For immoderate people, cutting retired caffeine by precocious greeting is best.

DON'T portion intoxicant correct earlier bed 

Some group portion intoxicant earlier furniture to thief them autumn asleep. Unfortunately, intoxicant is only a impermanent solution, says Michael Grandner, a scientist and slumber interrogator astatine nan University of Arizona.

While intoxicant whitethorn initially sedate you, "the pendulum swings successful nan other guidance and wakes you up" arsenic it leaves your system, he says. It makes your slumber "shallow, choppy and surgery up."

If you're considering a nightcap successful nan evening, don't portion it correct earlier bed. Have your small tipple a fewer hours earlier. You want to springiness nan intoxicant much "time to exit your system," says Grandner.

If you deliberation intoxicant is affecting your sleep, effort and trim your depletion successful half, says Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, a slumber master and aesculapian head based successful Florida. "We're not saying extremity intoxicant completely. Change nan timing and nan magnitude a small bit."

DON'T feast connected dense meals correct earlier bed 

Eating a large meal, for illustration a hamburger aliases a sheet of pasta, correct earlier furniture tin disrupt your sleep, says Abbasi-Feinberg. Digestion slows astatine nighttime and laying level aft eating tin lead to beingness discomforts for illustration heartburn and reflux.

Put simply, "you're not expected to eat and past laic down for hours astatine a time," says Grandner.

Stop eating a mates of hours earlier bed, says Abbasi-Feinberg. "If your digestion is done, you thin to slumber better."

It's good to eat a small snack successful nan evening, says Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist and slumber master successful Charlottesville, Va. But support it light: deliberation hummus and chips aliases a vessel of cereal.

The integer communicative was edited by Meghan Keane. The ocular editor is Beck Harlan. We'd emotion to perceive from you. Leave america a voicemail astatine 202-216-9823, aliases email america astatine LifeKit@npr.org.

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