What Is The Best Diet To Optimize Sleep?

Sleep and diet are ultra important for health and wellbeing. But did you realize that they are linked? What and when we eat can have a huge influence on how well and how long we sleep. Read on for the details and how you can get better sleep by paying more attention to your diet!

In this blog, you will learn:

• Why is diet important for sleep quality
• Which specific diets and foods will help improve your sleep 
• Which specific foods will worsen sleep

A good night’s sleep for a healthy adult is 7-9 hours of sleep per night (Thapa A, 2024). 

Approximately 45% of American adults do not achieve the recommended 7–9 hours per night (Binks H, 2020).

SLEEP MATTERS

• One hour less sleep per day is linked to 4% greater prevalence of hypertension, 3% greater prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and 8% greater prevalence of obesity (St-Onge MP, 2023). 
• The lowest risks of obesity and T2D is in people who sleep 7–8 hours per night (St-Onge MP, 2023).
• Insomnia, difficulty falling sleep and difficulty maintaining sleep are all associated with increased incidence of T2D (St-Onge MP, 2023).

Specific foods and diets help to regulate sleep. A diet that maintains optimal health and a healthy weight contributes to better sleep. 

The relationship is circular: the better your diet, the better your sleep will be, and the easier it will be to make healthy food choices. 

A few reasons why diet affects sleep so deeply are:

• Gut health 
• Blood sugar regulation
• Nutrient-density
• Inflammation & metabolic syndrome 

GUT HEALTH

Diet significantly affects the make-up of the gut microbiome, which affects sleep. Gut bacteria affect circadian changes and the gut clock in both mice and humans (Arola-Arnal A, 2019). It is thought that gut bacteria influence the central clock and brain areas, by sending nutritional information to the brain in a cyclical circadian manner (Arola-Arnal A, 2019). 

• Fragmented sleep and short sleep duration are both linked to gut dysbiosis, a condition of imbalanced gut bacteria (Matenchuk BA, 2020). 
• Sleep loss issues can result from an overgrowth of certain harmful gut bacteria. Equally, bacterial end-products created in response to sleep loss can induce fatigue (Matenchuk BA, 2020). 
• Disruptions in the sleep–wake cycle may lead to changes in gut bacteria, which in turn can cause stress, anxiety and sleep-related issues (Godos J F. R., 2024). 

Good sleep quality and duration support a healthy gut microbiome composition. At the same time, a healthy gut supports good sleep (Matenchuk BA, 2020). 

BLOOD SUGAR MANAGEMENT

Nutrition affects blood sugar levels, which affect sleep. Too high or too low blood sugar can disturb sleep. For good sleep, blood sugar should be stable throughout the night. 

High blood sugar can disrupt sleep. Too much sugar in the blood causes the kidneys to excrete the sugar by making more urine. During the night, this can cause more trips to the bathroom which interrupt sleep. Other high blood sugar symptoms include thirst or headache, which make it difficult to go back to sleep.

Low blood sugar is also an issue. If blood sugar levels drop too low during the night and stay there, the body has to raise it. It will produce epinephrine (or adrenaline), the fight or flight hormone that causes the liver to make glucose (blood sugar), to raise blood sugar. The stress hormone cortisol is also produced because it helps raise blood sugar and increases the availability of blood glucose to the brain. Adrenaline and cortisol increase alertness and wakefulness, which can wake you up in the night. 

A spike in blood sugar that raises levels too high can lead to a later crash in blood sugar and levels get too low. This can cause you to wake up feeling hungry, thirsty or needing the bathroom. 

For good sleep, blood sugar levels need to remain stable. This means avoiding excessive sugar in the diet and eating a balanced diet to avoid high blood sugar. Likewise, it is important to eat enough to avoid a blood sugar crash in the night.  

NUTRIENT-DENSITY

Sleep is influenced by nutrient intake, which can affect sleep either directly or indirectly (Binks H, 2020). Inadequate overall nutrition and deficiencies, for example in minerals, can cause sleep problems. Minerals regulate sleep cycles and help produce calming hormones that induce sleep. For example, magnesium and zinc enhance sleep quality by balancing neurotransmitters in the brain. They reduce muscle tension and alertness before bedtime. 

Tryptophan is an amino acid found in protein foods. A low tryptophan diet can impair sleep. Sleep is controlled by the hormones melatonin and serotonin. Melatonin helps regulate sleep and wake cycles. Serotonin regulates sleep, hunger and emotions. Serotonin is a pre-cursor to melatonin and signals the body to make more melatonin. Tryptophan is a pre-cursor to both serotonin and melatonin. Tryptophan can cross the blood brain barrier, where it is converted to serotonin (Binks H, 2020). Tryptophan depletion affects the synthesis of serotonin and can reduce sleep onset (Binks H, 2020). 

• Eating tryptophan-enriched foods (60 mg tryptophan twice a day, morning and night) has been shown to increase sleep efficiency and actual sleep time in people aged 55–75 years old (Arola-Arnal A, 2019). Eating food enriched with tryptophan at night increases sleep efficiency in infants 8–16 months old with sleep problems (Arola-Arnal A, 2019).

High carbohydrate meals can increase the tryptophan circulating in the body, giving it a higher chance of crossing the blood brain barrier and converting into serotonin (Binks H, 2020). This explains why sleep can be improved by high carb meals (Binks H, 2020). 

Carbs are helpful but don’t go too high carb. A very high-carb high glycemic index meal that doesn’t have much protein, fat, or fiber to buffer the breakdown of those carbs, can cause a blood sugar spike. This is then followed by a blood sugar crash which is disruptive for sleep. 

INFLAMMATION & METABOLIC SYNDROME

Nutrition influences inflammation in the body, which relates to sleep and insomnia. Dietary issues, like excessive sugar and blood sugar dysregulation, can ultimately lead to metabolic issues (for example, pre-diabetes, diabetes), chronic inflammation and metabolic syndrome, which affect sleep. Likewise, sleep disturbances can increase insulin resistance (a metabolic problem) and inflammation (by increasing the production of the inflammatory cytokines C-reactive protein and interleukin 6) (Zhao M, 2020). 

WHAT IS THE BEST DIET FOR THE BEST SLEEP QUALITY?

A healthy nutrient-dense diet improves sleep quality (Godos J G. G., 2021). Closely following the Mediterranean diet or the MIND diet is linked to better sleep quality, good sleep duration, less daytime sleepiness and less insomnia (Godos J F. R., 2024). 

The Mediterranean or Med diet is based on plant foods; vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains. Olive oil as the primary fat. Moderate amounts of dairy, fish, seafood, poultry and eggs are included, with occasional red meat. 

• The Mediterranean diet can improve sleep duration and sleep quality (Godos J F. R., 2024). 
• On the Mediterranean diet, people have less sleep disturbances, less insomnia, less daytime sleepiness and higher sleep efficiency (Godos J F. R., 2024). 
• People who best followed the Mediterranean diet had 53% lower odds of having insomnia (Godos J F. R., 2024).

The MIND diet combines the plant-based approach of the Med diet with the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, designed to help lower BP. Foods to eat include vegetables, berries, nuts, herbs, whole grains, olive oil, fish, beans, poultry. It limits saturated fats and added sugars.

• The MIND diet is linked to better sleep quality, less daytime sleepiness and less insomnia (Godos J F. R., 2024). 
• People closely following the MIND diet had 42% lower odds of daytime sleepiness (Godos J F. R., 2024).  

The Mediterranean and MIND diets’ focus on plant foods supports good sleep quality. Plants provide antioxidants, vitamins, phytochemicals and polyphenols. These micronutrients support good gut health, stable blood sugar and inhibit inflammation.