New research suggests that eating five cups of fruits and vegetables during the day may significantly improve sleep quality that same night.
From counting sheep to using white noise machines and weighted blankets, people have tried countless strategies to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep disruptions can have wide-ranging negative effects, including problems with cardiovascular and metabolic health, memory, learning, productivity, mood regulation, and relationships.
It turns out that a powerful tool for better sleep may have been hiding in plain sight—in the produce aisle. A new study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University found that eating more fruits and vegetables during the day was linked to better sleep quality that same 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. “The temporal associations and objectively-measured outcomes in this study represent crucial steps toward filling a gap in important public health knowledge.”
Uncovering the connection between diet and sleep
Research has shown that getting too little sleep can lead people to choose diets higher in fat and sugar. But while sleep’s impact on health and productivity is well documented, much less is known about how diet influences sleep patterns.
Earlier observational studies linked high fruit and vegetable intake with better self-reported sleep quality. However, this new study is the first to show a direct connection between the food someone eats during the day and how well they sleep that night, based on objective data.
In the study, healthy young adults recorded their daily food intake using an app and wore wrist monitors that tracked their sleep. The researchers focused on “sleep fragmentation,” a measure of how often a person wakes up or transitions from deep to light sleep during the night.
Promising findings support dietary guidelines
The researchers found that each day’s diet was correlated with meaningful differences in the subsequent night’s sleep. Participants who ate more fruits and vegetables during the day tended to have deeper, more uninterrupted sleep that same night, as did those who consumed more healthy carbohydrates like whole grains.
Based on their findings and statistical modeling, the researchers estimate that people who eat the CDC-recommended five cups of fruits and veggies per day could experience a 16 percent improvement in sleep quality compared to people who consume no fruits or vegetables.
“16 percent is a highly significant difference,” Tasali said. “It’s remarkable that such a meaningful change could be observed within less than 24 hours.”
Future studies will help establish causation, broaden the findings across diverse populations, and examine the underlying mechanisms of digestion, neurology, and metabolism that could explain the positive impact of fruits and vegetables on sleep quality. But based on current data, the experts confidently advise that regularly eating a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables is best for long-term sleep health.
“People are always asking me if there are things they can eat that will help them sleep better,” said co-senior author Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia. “Small changes can impact sleep. That is empowering — better rest is within your control.”
Reference: “Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults” by Hedda L. Boege, Katherine D. Wilson, Jennifer M. Kilkus, Waveley Qiu, Bin Cheng, Kristen E. Wroblewski, Becky Tucker, Esra Tasali and Marie-Pierre St-Onge, 11 June 2025, Sleep Health.
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2025.05.003
The work 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.
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1 Comment
It is great to see this study. Fostering better sleep and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables are to be underscored as this article and its press release do. Certainly, there is considerable evidence that diet can causally influence facets of physical and mental health. That said, it would be important to represent the science very clearly here, despite the overall wisdom of encouraging a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
This study does not provide direct evidence that eating fruits and vegetables improves sleep. The authors do not misrepresent their findings, and it is important to state that. The issue is twofold: First, the associations are just that, to wit, a connection and there is no evidence in that that diet and sleep are causally related. Second there was a very small sample and that means statistical tests could not rule out (control for) factors such as exercise, other healthful practices, social networks, income, mental health, and a handful of factors that we know relate to overall health. Do they relate to sleep quality in this study? We do not know but such factors need to be controlled to come closer to knowing if it is some number of fruits and vegetables that explains the association once other factors are controlled.
My comments do not in any way detract from the findings. Diet and sleep were associated. The authors establish that and provide a very clear presentation without overstatements. No doubt soon to come will be a randomized controlled trial in which some individuals receive a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and others to not. Will sleep be different? It will be so important to know.
My comments bear no criticism of the investigation nor its highly qualified researchers. Yet headlines such as those in SciTechDaily could be misconstrued to imply that if you want better sleep, eat more fruits and vegetables. That could be true but we do not actually know that from this study.