Has anyone actually fixed their sleep by changing what they eat?

[babyboy520]

Lately I’ve been sleeping terribly — either taking ages to fall asleep or waking up in the middle of the night for no reason. It’s starting to mess with my energy during the day, so I’ve been wondering if food could be part of it.
I’ve read a bit about how things like cutting caffeine after midday, eating lighter dinners, or adding foods with magnesium or tryptophan can help with sleep. But I’m curious if anyone here has actually noticed a real difference.
Did changing your diet — even slightly — help you sleep better? Or is it more about overall routine than what you eat? Would love to hear what’s worked (or not worked) for others.

I have a massive cola issue and I found if I cut it after 12 I sleep massively better.

Cutting down on caffeine has definitely helped. So I have no more than two caffeinated drinks a day, and none from lunchtime on. BTW green tea and chocolate both contain caffeine.

I find that being well-hydrated during the day also helps. I try to drink enough to pee pale during the day, but reduce the amount I drink after about 8pm so I won’t have to go to the loo at night. (Doesn’t always work - thanks, menopause.)

Too much alcohol has always made me sleep badly. These days I almost never have more than a couple of glasses of wine on any occasion.

I don’t know anything about vitamins helping sleep (none of the supplements have ever helped my sleep) but certainly a contented digestive system helps. Plenty of vegetables. I tend to feel better and sleep better if my diet prioritises veg and protein over carbs. Levels out blood sugar, avoiding insulin spikes. I don’t like to go to bed on a very full stomach, either. I’d rather eat my last meal earlier, say 7pm, and have a bedtime snack if I’m peckish later. My bedtime snack is usually cheese - protein rather than carb.

If you’re struggling to fall asleep, try listening to something engaging enough to distract you, but not enough to keep you awake FOMO. I recommend Remains of the Day (audiobook) and Erik Ireland Listen to Sleep (podcast).

Yes, but I also did a lot of other things.

I read Why We Sleep by Matt Walker, and there’s more to it than food. Every cell in your body has an internal clock or rhythm - it does its work at particular times, rests at particular times, and divides at particular times. To feel well, you need all your cells doing their work at the right time, so you need to give them cues about what time it is - because they all sense time in different ways.

Food:
• Yes, caffeine is a stimulant and will have an effect. Keep your caffeine to the first half of the day, switch to decaf after midday.
• One of the reasons we sleep is because a chemical called adenosine builds up in the brain as a kind of waste product from normal wakefulness. There are receptors that detect this build up. The adenosine is cleared while we sleep. So the build up of adenosine creates a “sleep pressure”. Caffeine blocks (temporarily) these receptors, so giving some relief from sleep pressure, but when the caffeine is cleared, your receptors suddenly realise there’s loads of adenosine still there, so the tiredness hits. If you keep your caffeine level high you never quite feel sleepy enough to clear all the adenosine.
• Meal timing is a big influence on internal clock: try to stick to a regular eating schedule. Make sure you finish eating about 3 hours before you want to fall asleep. In the beginning this meant I felt super hungry - having a fruit tea (unsweetened) helped, and after a while I stopped feeling so hungry in the evenings.

Light:
• Perhaps the biggest influence is light. Your brain needs to have bright light early in the day and then have it gradually dim in the evening to stimulate the production of melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that creates sleep pressure (and works with adenosine to help you fall asleep).
• Most of us don’t spend enough time outside to get bright enough light into our eyes. Indoor bright light is still 100-1000x too dim to do the job.
• In an ideal world we’d all get up and do some exercise outside first thing. If you’ve got a dog, walk it first thing. If you run, run outside first thing. (Yes, when it’s winter and sunrise is late this is difficult to time around work).
• If you can’t exercise first thing, take your morning coffee outside. Try to be out at least 10 minutes.
• Even a cloudy day is far far brighter outside than in. (I did do the measurements myself on this one when I was a teacher and had access to the tools).
• In the evening try not to use the Big Light, use dimmer, redder lights. Lamps, fairy lights, candles (if it’s safe). Make it cosy. Turn your phone brightness right down (and the TV if you can - DH is not a fan!)

Keep the routine:
Try to stick to the same timings every day. If you work shifts, this is tricky - scientists have written suggestions for shift workers but I haven’t read them.

At the weekend try to flex the timings by no more than an hour. If you find you need much more sleep at the weekend it’s because you’re not getting enough during the week. Adjust your timings so you’ve got at least an 8 hour sleep opportunity.

It took me a long time to fix my sleep, and it’s not perfect, I still wake once or twice a night sometimes, but my sleep is much better quality now. It may take you YEARS to feel like you’ve made proper progress, but you might also feel some instant improvements.

Stick with it.

No caffeine at all and no alcohol (just a beer if you must) really helped. I also take magnesium before bed. CBD oil is useful for getting to sleep. I've always found very salty food like takeaways keeps me awake. I went through ten years of it but now it id a bit better. I hope you find something to help.

My go to is no food after 7pm just camomile tea, read book and sleep works wonders

This is all good advice, especially the alcohol. It’s a depressant, makes you feel sleepy, but the sleep is such poor quality it doesn’t really count. If you want to drink alcohol, earlier is better.

If you drink often, you may want to cut down and have maybe a glass of wine early in the evening so you are allowing your body to break down the alcohol before you sleep.

Smaller dinners and nothing after 7.30pm have stopped my nightmares almost completely. I've never been able to eat uncooked cheese in the evening but as I've got older too much protein also gives me nightmares and too many carbs in the evening makes menopausal sweats worse. I also find asparagus gives me really intense dreams though not nightmares. No coffee after 11am and I'm allergic to garlic and can't eat too many onions or leeks. I'm a joy to live with

That’s such a good tip， thanks

That’s such a thoughtful and detailed explanation — thank you for sharing it! It really puts into perspective how many different factors affect sleep beyond just diet. The bit about light exposure and internal clocks makes so much sense, especially since most of us spend so much time indoors. I’ll definitely keep some of these points in mind.

My friend swears by excercise and being outside. Mind you he works as a forester and is shinning up trees and cycling 70 miles at 73. So I’m guessing there’s something in it!