Summary: A recent study reports that eating more fruits and vegetables during the day is linked with better sleep that same night. Participants who increased their produce intake experienced fewer nocturnal awakenings and less shallow sleep, based on objective wrist-worn monitoring.
Objective activity-tracking data revealed a clear relationship between healthier dietary patterns and improved nightly rest, suggesting that simple changes in daily eating could be an effective, natural strategy to support sleep health.
Key Facts:
- Immediate effect: Greater fruit and vegetable intake during the day was associated with improved sleep quality the following night.
- Objective measurement: Reduced sleep fragmentation was observed in participants whose diets aligned with public health recommendations.
- Meaningful benefit: Consuming the CDC-recommended five cups of fruits and vegetables was linked with an estimated 16% improvement in sleep quality compared with no intake.
Source: University of Chicago
From counting sheep to white noise and weighted blankets, people try many strategies to sleep better.
Poor sleep can affect cardiovascular and metabolic health, memory and learning, workplace productivity, mood regulation, and personal relationships. Identifying accessible, low-risk ways to improve sleep is a public health priority.
A study led by researchers at University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University suggests a readily available tool for better sleep may already be in your grocery cart: produce.
Researchers found that higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables was associated with objectively measured improvements in sleep that night. “Dietary modifications could be a new, natural and cost-effective approach to achieve better sleep,” said co-senior author Esra Tasali, MD, director of the UChicago Sleep Center.
This study provides temporal evidence linking the foods people eat during the day to measurable changes in sleep that evening, addressing a gap in our understanding of diet’s immediate effects on sleep quality.
Uncovering the connection between diet and sleep
Previous work has shown that poor sleep can lead people to prefer higher-fat or higher-sugar foods, but far less is known about how daytime diet influences sleep that same night. Prior observational studies associated greater fruit and vegetable consumption with better self-reported sleep, yet few studies have demonstrated a day-to-night association using objective sleep measures.
In this study, healthy young adults logged their daily food intake via an app and wore wrist actigraphy devices to record sleep. The investigators focused on sleep fragmentation, an objective index that captures how often a person wakes or shifts from deep to lighter sleep during the night.
Promising results that support dietary guidance
Analysis of paired diet-sleep records showed that daily dietary choices were linked to measurable differences in the subsequent night’s rest. Participants who consumed more fruits and vegetables, and those who ate more healthful carbohydrates such as whole grains, experienced less fragmented sleep.
Based on the study’s models, meeting the CDC recommendation of about five cups of fruits and vegetables per day—an increase from no intake—was associated with an estimated 16% improvement in sleep quality. “Sixteen percent is a highly significant difference,” Tasali noted. “It’s notable that such a meaningful change was observed within 24 hours.”
The study also observed trends suggesting that higher red and processed meat intake might relate to more disrupted sleep, while greater fiber and magnesium intakes tended to align with less disrupted sleep, though those trends did not reach statistical significance in this sample.
Future research will be needed to establish causation, test findings across broader and more diverse populations, and investigate biological mechanisms—such as digestion, neurophysiology, and metabolism—that could explain how fruits, vegetables, and quality carbohydrates support sleep.
Meanwhile, the investigators recommend that regular consumption of complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables is a sensible strategy for long-term sleep health. “People often ask whether there are foods that help with sleep,” said co-senior author Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia. “Small dietary changes can improve sleep. That’s empowering—better rest is within your control.”
The study, “Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults,” was published in Sleep Health: The Journal of the National Sleep Foundation in June 2025.
Co-authors include Hedda L. Boege (Columbia), Katherine D. Wilson (University of California San Diego), Jennifer M. Kilkus (UChicago), Waveley Qiu (Columbia), Bin Cheng (Columbia), Kristen E. Wroblewski (UChicago), Becky Tucker (UChicago), Esra Tasali (UChicago), and Marie-Pierre St-Onge (Columbia).
Funding: This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL142648, R35HL155670, UL1TR001873, CTSA-UL1TR0002389, UL1TR002389, R01DK136214, T32HL007605) and the Diabetes Research and Training Center at the University of Chicago.
About this sleep and diet research news
Author: Grace Niewijk
Source: University of Chicago
Contact: Grace Niewijk – University of Chicago
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults” by Esra Tasali et al. Sleep Health
Abstract
Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults
Background
Observational evidence links higher-quality diets with better sleep, but clearer, temporally specific data are needed because dietary changes could provide a practical, low-risk way to improve sleep.
Objective
To evaluate how daytime food intake influences sleep quality the following night by combining multiple days of self-reported diet monitoring with objective sleep measurement under free-living conditions.
Methods
Participants were younger U.S. adults who typically slept 7–9 hours per night. Diet was assessed using the Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment Tool; sleep was recorded with wrist actigraphy. The sleep fragmentation index served as the objective measure of sleep quality.
Results
Thirty-four participants (mean age 28.3 ± 6.6 years, mean BMI 24.1 ± 3.9 kg/m2, 82.3% male, 50.0% racial/ethnic minority) contributed 201 paired diet-sleep records. Greater daytime intakes of fruits and vegetables (β = −0.60 (SE 0.29), P = .038) and carbohydrates (β = −0.02 (SE 0.007), P = .022) were associated with lower sleep fragmentation. Added sugar was not associated with fragmentation (P = .54).
There were trends toward associations between higher red and processed meat intake and more disrupted sleep (P = .10), and between higher fiber and magnesium intakes and less disrupted sleep (P = .08 and P = .09, respectively), though these did not reach conventional statistical significance in this sample.
Conclusions
Higher daytime intakes of fruits, vegetables, and healthful carbohydrates were associated with less disrupted nighttime sleep. Meeting dietary recommendations with a 5-cup increase in fruits and vegetables (from no intake) corresponded to an estimated 16% better sleep quality. These results support diets rich in complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables as likely beneficial for sleep health.