It’s no secret that Americans struggle with sleep. Accord-
ing to the National Sleep Foundation, between 50 million and
70 million adults have a sleep disorder.^1 Approximately 30% of
adults report symptoms of short-term insomnia, and approxi-
mately 10% have symptoms of chronic insomnia.^2
As such, sleep improvement has become a massive indus-
try, recently estimated to be worth upward of $30 billion.^3
But as sleep-health companies peddle everything from mat-
tresses and white-noise machines to high-tech pajamas in the
pursuit of more shut-eye, some researchers are exploring a
new potential avenue for improving sleep: food. An emerg-
ing body of research suggests there’s a relationship between
sleep and diet quality, with the implication that improving our
diet could result in better slumber.4,5
State of the Research
Much of what’s known so far about the connection between
sleep and diet comes from cross-sectional studies, which mea-
sure both sleep and diet at a single point in time. According to
Hassan Dashti, PhD, RD, a research fellow at the Center for
Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard
Medical School, this research suggests that diet is linked to both
sleep duration and sleep quality, but it doesn’t indicate whether
sleep patterns impact dietary habits or vice versa.
“These cross-sectional studies can’t distinguish the exact
direction of the association between diet and sleep or determine
whether a causal link even exists,” he says.
Current thinking is that the relationship between diet and sleep
is reciprocal. Experimental data on sleep deprivation make clearLınk
Between
ZZZs
& Eats
The
When it’s time to
hit the hay, the
food you ate may
determine whether
you have a restless
or a refreshing
night’s sleep.
BY JAMIE SANTA CRUZ
32 today’s dietitian august 2019