How to Sleep Better: The Foods to Eat (and Avoid) for a Restful Night

It’s a familiar scenario: tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling, desperately willing sleep to arrive. We often chalk it up to stress, a busy mind, or the pressures of daily life. But increasingly, experts are highlighting a crucial, often overlooked factor in sleep quality: what – and *when* – we eat. The connection between our gut health, hormonal balance, and our ability to achieve restorative sleep is becoming increasingly clear, and it’s a message that resonates particularly strongly in a city like Chicago, where demanding careers and a speedy-paced lifestyle often lead to compromised dietary habits.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, adults need at least seven hours of sleep nightly. Yet, as Daniel Pérez Chada, director of the Sleep Clinic at the Austral University Hospital, points out, we’ve collectively lost around 25% of our sleep over the past 50 years. This isn’t just about feeling tired; chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, and significantly impacts cognitive function. The Sleep Foundation of the United States underscores these risks, emphasizing the far-reaching consequences of insufficient rest.

The relationship between sleep, nutrition, and digestion is bidirectional, explains Silvana Malnis, a pulmonologist and physician at the Sleep Laboratory of the German Hospital. Hormones play a central role. “The circadian rhythm and so-called peripheral clocks play a central role in this link. The central clock, located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain, synchronizes various peripheral clocks such as the liver, pancreas, intestine and adipose tissue when perceiving sunlight through the eye. This determines that digestion works differently during the day and night, since insulin sensitivity decreases at night and gastric emptying, that is, the time it takes for the stomach to empty, is also slower during that period. That is why eating late generates a decoupling in the system,” she describes.

Hormones like leptin and ghrelin also interact with sleep. Decreased sleep leads to lower leptin (the satiety hormone) and increased ghrelin (the hunger hormone), resulting in increased appetite, particularly for quickly absorbed carbohydrates, and poor blood sugar control. This creates a vicious cycle, as poor dietary choices further disrupt sleep.

The Glucose-Cortisol-Wake-Up Cycle

Maite Maller, a nutritionist specializing in the microbiome, fertility, and anti-inflammatory nutrition at Halitus, describes the glucose-cortisol-wake-up cycle. “Many people who suffer from insomnia, or who wake up startled at 3 or 4 in the morning, don’t have a sleep problem per se, but a metabolic problem. When we have dinner with high amounts of simple carbohydrates (like a plate of pasta alone, bread, or a sweet dessert), we generate a peak of glucose in the blood. What goes up quickly, comes down quickly.”

During the early morning hours, the body experiences a rapid drop in blood glucose. “To avoid collapse, the brain enters ‘alert mode’ and releases our main stress hormone: cortisol. And here lies the biological problem: cortisol and melatonin (the sleep hormone) cannot be high at the same time. If metabolic stress raises cortisol to stabilize your sugar, melatonin drops, and we automatically wake up,” Maller explains.

The Gut and Melatonin

Maller emphasizes that we often overlook a key biological factor. “The quality of our rest is not defined only at the bedside, but by what we serve on our plate.” She highlights the intimate connection between sleep and digestion, stating they are “gears of the same clock.”

The gut plays a surprisingly significant role. More than 80% of our serotonin, the “well-being hormone,” is produced in the digestive tract. This serotonin is the essential raw material for the body to produce melatonin at night. If the gut is inflamed due to stress and a diet based on ultra-processed foods, that “factory” shuts down. No supplement can compensate for an imbalanced microbiome.

The Enemies of Good Sleep

Barbara D’Angelis, a licensed nutritionist and university professor, points to several foods that can negatively impact sleep quality. Stimulants like alcohol, tea, and caffeine can interfere with sleep. Difficult-to-digest foods like red meat, and those that promote excess stomach acid, such as spicy foods, high-fat meals, and fried foods, can also disrupt rest. Poor sleep can also affect impulse control, altering hormone levels and increasing cravings for sugary, fatty, and salty foods.

What Not to Eat for Better Sleep

Ramón de Cangas, a member of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, recommends avoiding the following:

High-fat foods: Slow down gastric emptying and develop digestion heavier, making it difficult to fall asleep.
Foods rich in methylxanthines: Caffeine, mate, tea, cocoa, cola drinks, and energy drinks can interfere with sleep.
Alcohol: Causes unstable sleep with more awakenings and a decrease in deep and REM sleep.
Late dinners: Interfere with circadian rhythms and alter sleep onset, as late digestion affects the normal hormonal cycle.

Malnis adds that dinners with fermentable foods, high in FODMAPs in some patients, can cause bloating and gas, leading to altered vagal activation and micro-awakenings during sleep.

How to Eat for a Good Night’s Rest

The experts offer several recommendations:

Combine carbohydrates with healthy proteins and fats: To avoid glucose spikes and nighttime awakenings, don’t consume carbohydrates alone at dinner. Always serve them with a good source of protein (eggs, meats, legumes) and healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, nuts) to stabilize energy.
Respect the digestive window: Try to eat dinner at least two hours before bedtime.
Reduce fluid intake at night: Hydrate primarily during the day to avoid waking up to use the bathroom.
Consume magnesium-rich foods: Pumpkin seeds, Brazil nuts, spinach, chard, legumes, whole grains, peanuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, kale, avocado, and bananas are excellent options.
Consume foods for melatonin formation: Dairy, eggs, chicken, soy, lamb, dark chocolate, buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and tuna provide key components for serotonin production.
Include tryptophan-rich foods: Chicken, dairy, red meat, eggs, fish, tofu, hummus, kiwi, banana, nuts, and almonds contribute to serotonin formation.

Given my background in nutritional science, and understanding how these principles apply to the busy lives of Chicagoans, if this trend impacts you in the Chicago area, here are three types of local professionals you need to consider:

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) specializing in Sleep Health:: Look for an RDN with specific training in the gut-sleep connection. They can help you personalize a dietary plan based on your individual needs and address any underlying digestive issues. Certification in behavioral therapy is a plus.
Functional Medicine Practitioner:: These practitioners take a holistic approach, looking at the interplay between diet, lifestyle, and gut health. They can order advanced testing to identify food sensitivities, microbiome imbalances, and hormonal deficiencies that may be contributing to sleep problems. Look for board certification and experience with sleep disorders.
Integrative Sleep Specialist (MD or DO):: An integrative sleep specialist combines conventional medical knowledge with complementary therapies. They can diagnose and treat sleep disorders while also addressing underlying nutritional and lifestyle factors. Look for someone affiliated with a reputable hospital system like Northwestern Memorial or University of Chicago Medicine.

Ready to find trusted professionals? Browse our complete directory of top-rated nutritionists and health experts in the Chicago area today.