Are you losing sleep over your diet?
Nutrition science has long linked our health with what we eat. Whole grains, veggies, and fruits can lower cardiovascular and metabolic health risks, while too many ultra-processed foods increase them.
A new line of research is exploring another outcome: sleep.
It turns out that certain foods can change sleep patterns, which can, in turn, affect a person’s risk of obesity. Some evidence suggests it’s a two-way street: What you eat can change how you sleep, and how well you sleep can affect the type of food you choose to eat.
“Diet and sleep are intertwined and influence one another and influence circadian rhythms throughout the body,” Marie-Pierre St.-Onge, PhD, said at a 2025 sleep conference in Singapore. St-Onge is founding director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.
Small changes over time could add up to better sleep — and perhaps more control over weight. These tips can help you get started.
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Eat your fruit and veggies.
People who ate more foods high in fiber and complex carbohydrates had better quality sleep, according to a small 2025 study co-authored by St.-Onge. Eating more fruits and vegetables, in particular, was linked to waking up less often at night, while a higher intake of red and processed meat was associated with more disrupted sleep.
These sleep-promoting eating patterns align with widely recommended diets like the Mediterranean diet, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, and one that combines both: the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet.
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Put a cherry on top.
You’ve heard that taking melatonin supplements 60 to 90 minutes before bedtime may help with short-term sleep problems, but did you know certain fruits and vegetables also boost melatonin? Those with higher melatonin levels could improve sleep. Some examples:
- Tart cherries
- Skin of red or black grapes
- Strawberries
- Tomatoes
- Bell peppers
Fruits and veggies also provide polyphenols (antioxidants) that support the good bacteria in your digestive system. A healthier gut microbiome, in turn, can better regulate the genes controlling your 24-hour body clock, or “circadian rhythm,” and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. A healthier gut also is linked to better sleep quality, a lower risk of insomnia, and better weight management.
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Blame the doughnut if you can’t fall asleep.
St.-Onge and colleagues did a study where they assigned one group of people to a controlled diet designed to maintain body weight and another group to an “ad libitum” diet — meaning they could eat whatever they wanted. The ad libitum group ate more calories, less protein, and more fats and saturated fats — and reported more trouble falling asleep.
Fiber, refined carbs, and saturated fats made the biggest difference in sleep. For example, people who ate more fiber spent more time in restorative slow-wave sleep, while those who consumed more sugar and saturated fats spent less time there.
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Eat earlier in the day.
The relationship between eating, sleep, and weight management goes beyond the types of food you eat. The timing of meals can also make a difference.
The field of “chrono-nutrition” looks at just that. Maybe you’ve heard of a time-restricted diet — only eating during a certain 8- to 12-hour window each day. Following a time-restricted diet earlier in the day was associated with more weight loss, compared to eating over 12 to 14 hours, one study found. Even moving the “meal midpoint” to earlier in the day could help, other evidence suggests. (The midpoint is the time in the middle between the first and last meals.)
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Avoid eating more often when sleep deprived.
Getting one night of relatively poor sleep may not have a huge impact, but a pattern of low-quality sleep over time is associated with eating more calories — and, specifically, more calories from unhealthy foods.
Other studies show that sleep-deprived people tend to eat processed foods, along with foods higher in fats and calories, which suggests that people find it harder to stick to a healthy diet when they’re not getting enough high-quality sleep.
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Be mindful that it goes both ways.
If you’re prioritizing diet but not sleep — or you sleep well but neglect diet — you might see fewer benefits to weight loss and weight management.
“Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of literature showing that individuals who sleep too little have a higher risk of obesity and tend to gain more weight over time than do individuals who get at least seven hours of sleep a night,” St.-Onge said.
One meta-analysis found that even a 30-minute difference in sleep can change obesity risk. Those who slept seven hours were at a lower risk than others who slept just a little less: six to seven hours.
We’re all tempted to eat food we know is not the healthiest, especially when we’re super busy and running on less sleep. But if an unhealthy pattern in sleep, nutrition, or weight management develops over time, it helps to know that these factors (excuse the expression) feed on each other.
