The Best Diet for Great Sleep

Small changes make a big difference

There’s just nothing like a good night’s rest. 

It can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. 

But it can also be the difference between good health and bad.  

Unfortunately, for 40-70 percent of older adults, good sleep is as fleeting as your 20/20 vision.  

The good news is that you don’t need to resort to sleep meds to get all the restorative shut-eye you need for your health and your mood. 

Most of the time, your sleep is a product of your environment. 

That’s why my first recommendation to patients struggling with falling asleep—or staying asleep—is to make changes to their environment. 

This includes practical steps like avoiding blue light at night, taking the TV out of the bedroom, exercising, and sticking to a regular sleep schedule. 

This is called good sleep hygiene. 

But beyond that, there are also dietary changes you can make that have a major impact on the quality of your sleep. 

And according to a recent study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, there’s one specific eating pattern that has been linked to better sleep quality time and again. 

When researchers looked at 20 studies published over more than 40 years to compare diet to sleep quality, it became clear that one particular diet contained the components that have consistently been linked with better sleep: 

The Mediterranean diet. 

I don’t follow all of the components of this way of eating (for example, grass-fed beef and organic, free-range eggs are a staple of my diet). 

But other components—like eating more fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables rich in serotonin and melatonin (critical for good sleep), and other anti-inflammatory foods—are consistently tied to better sleep. 

I’d add that what’s missing from this diet—the processed, sugar-laden junk food that floods your body with inflammation and messes with your hormones—is just as important to solving this sleep puzzle. 

Another factor is the timing of your eating. The less you eat late at night, the more you’ll be in line with your body’s internal clocks (your circadian rhythm). 

Get your body’s clock set properly, and good sleep will naturally follow.