THE WASHINGTON POST: What a sleep expert eats in a day for better rest at night

Want to sleep better at night? It starts with what you choose to eat for breakfast in the morning.

We know this thanks in part to research carried out by Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

St-Onge has conducted dozens of studies examining the relationship between diet and sleep. Her research suggests that you can improve how well you sleep at night by eating meals throughout the day that contain foods like fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains, lean meats, poultry and seafood - a pattern of eating that closely resembles the Mediterranean diet.

Eating more of these nutritious foods - and fewer highly processed ones laden with added sugar and saturated fat - benefits your sleep in many ways. It gives your body the nutrients it needs to produce sleep-regulating hormones like melatonin, and it helps keep your blood sugar stable while you sleep, potentially preventing you from waking up throughout the night.

In large studies, St-Onge and her colleagues have found that people whose pattern of eating closely aligns with the Mediterranean diet experience less insomnia and tend to sleep longer at night compared with people who eat a less nutritious diet.

In one study, St-Onge and her colleagues recruited 26 healthy adults and monitored them over multiple nights to see the impact of different diets on their sleep.

The researchers found that people got more deep, restorative sleep when they ate more fibre from fruits, vegetables and other plants. But eating more saturated fat was associated with less time spent in deep sleep at night. And eating a lot of refined carbohydrates and simple sugars, such as white bread, bagels, pastries and sugary drinks, was linked to more arousals and sleep disruptions.

Professor St-Onge published a cookbook in 2025 called Eat Better, Sleep Better, which teaches people how to turn sleep-supporting foods and ingredients into delicious meals.

We wanted to know how Professor St-Onge’s knowledge of sleep and nutrition influences her daily habits. So, we caught up with her to learn which foods she eats to improve her sleep, what her daily mealtime and sleep habits are like, and why she always eats dinner at least three hours before going to bed.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Do you think people underestimate the impact that their diet has on their sleep?

Yes, I think they underestimate the benefits they can get to their sleep from eating well. I think they recognise that there are foods that will interfere with their sleep, like caffeine and alcohol. But they may not realise that if they follow a healthful diet throughout the day that it can benefit their sleep at night.

Are there any foods that are particularly beneficial for sleep?

We have a paper that came out this year showing that consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables per day reduced sleep fragmentation in young healthy adults. We also see in large population studies that the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet are associated with a reduction in insomnia symptoms and people report improvements in sleep quality and sleep efficiency. Better sleep efficiency means that the time you spend in bed is actually spent asleep - so you’re not lying in bed trying to fall asleep or lying there wide awake in the middle of the night.

What is something surprising most people don’t know about food and sleep?

That it goes both ways. If you don’t sleep well, you tend to overeat and make poor dietary choices. You tend to gravitate toward a diet that’s less healthful - one that’s higher in fat and simple carbohydrates. But those same foods and nutrients that are the hallmarks of a poor diet are associated with poor-quality sleep. And if you flip that around and follow a more healthful diet you can have better sleep and make better choices and be better at managing your calorie intake and your weight.

What is your nightly sleep routine like?

I like to eat dinner at least three hours before I go to bed at night. If I eat too close to my bedtime, it disturbs my sleep. I get hot, and it’s not good. I feel it right away if I have dinner too late.

I get into bed around 10.15 p.m. And I sleep until around 6.15 a.m. I try to get at least eight hours every night. So, I keep a consistent bedtime and wake time throughout the week. And the same for mealtimes. It makes it easier when you have consistent bedtimes to have consistent mealtimes as well.

It’s also better for your health. Every organ in your body has its own clock. They have times at which they are optimised to process food, for example. Eating when your body is primed for receiving food is what’s optimal. And if you’re eating outside those periods, that’s when you start to have metabolic dysregulations, such as insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and increases in blood pressure and inflammation.

What time do you wake up, and what do you eat for breakfast?

I usually wake up around 6.15 or 6.30 a.m. and then I have breakfast around 7 or 7.15am. I usually have breakfast cereal with milk and a half banana.

I don’t eat sugary cereals. I like to eat high-fibre cereals like Kashi Go and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

I started putting a half banana in my cereal from doing research on how diet impacts sleep because there was a study that showed better melatonin secretion after consumption of bananas, or juice from pineapples or oranges. I wasn’t putting banana in my cereal three or four years ago. And now I do it every morning.

What do you eat for lunch?

I make sourdough bread and I add things like walnuts, hazelnuts and sesame. It’s like a multigrain sourdough bread. So, I have the sourdough bread that I’ve made, and I also have plain Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit.

I like Greek yogurt because it has calcium and protein. And I get fibre and easily digested but slow-release carbohydrates from the sourdough. The Greek yogurt and the fibre from the sourdough bread are good for your gut microbiome. And then I get in another serving of fruit. I eat different fruits, depending on the season.

What do you eat for dinner?

Dinner is more varied than lunch and breakfast. I usually have salmon once a week, shrimp once a week and chicken once a week. And other meals that I eat will have legumes or tofu. I eat salads and different types of veggies. I always eat some kind of green vegetable, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and asparagus. I love to eat butternut squash too. Vegetables are high in polyphenolic compounds, and they’re good for your gut microbiome and good for your sleep.

What do you do to get ready for sleep?

I never watch TV in bed or anything like that. In the evening, I watch TV in the living room. And then when it’s time for bed, I go into the bedroom and go to sleep. I don’t even read in bed. And then when I’m watching TV in the living room, I usually try to dim the lights. It’s better for melatonin release to be in dim light before bed. It tells your body that it’s getting ready for bed because it’s nighttime.

What are your favourite recipes from your cookbook?

I love the granola recipes. They’re high in fibre and magnesium, zinc and B6. I like the recipe for overnight oats. There’s also a muffin recipe that I like because it’s not just for breakfast. I discovered it’s a great pre-workout snack that tides me over until I can have a solid meal after a workout. And it’s delicious.

What advice do you have for our readers about sleep and nutrition?

Try to have a healthful diet across the day, rather than expecting one food or supplement consumed at a specific time to be a magic bullet. Eat more nuts, seeds and plants because they’ve been associated with better sleep at night. And keep consistent mealtimes and a consistent sleep schedule.

We keep learning more and more about the relationship between consistent bed and wake times and cardio-metabolic health. And we know that it’s important to keep your body’s natural rhythms constant. That includes both your mealtimes and your bedtime.