What to eat for better sleep

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Your diet affects your sleep. What foods can help you be your most rested self? Nutrition scientist and researcher Marie-Pierre St-Onge has research-backed tips on which foods to eat — and, spoilers, a lot of them are foods you either have in your fridge already or can work into nearly any recipe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Dear Prudence, Slate's advice podcast.
0:03.7	Join Prudy and guests like Roxanne Gay and Cheryl Strad as they answer your questions on work, relationships, and how to react to those tacky gifts from your ex-husband's girlfriend.
0:14.1	Listen now.
0:16.0	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:20.9	Hey, everybody. it's Mariel.
0:23.4	I don't know about y'all, but when I'm really tired, all I want to do, besides sleep, is lie around and eat carbs, pasta, bread, cake, cookies.
0:35.5	And that's something researchers have identified
0:38.0	that our sleep quality can influence our dietary choices.
0:41.9	But it turns out the reverse is also true.
0:44.8	What we eat day-to-day affects our sleep.
0:47.5	What we have been finding is that what you eat
0:52.3	in terms of various nutrients like types of fats and sugar and fiber,
0:58.9	can all play a role on sleep quality at night.
1:03.0	That's Marie-Pierre Saint-onch, a nutrition scientist and researcher at Columbia University
1:07.7	who studies the connection between sleeping and eating.
1:11.4	Maripia decided to team up with Kat Kratik, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Food and Travel
1:16.2	Magazine, Surve, to write a cookbook that will help people sleep better.
1:20.9	In it, they explain the science, talk about what to eat more of and less of, and then give
1:25.8	a whole bunch of recipes that incorporate the nutrients
1:28.1	you need to sleep well. On this episode of Life Kit, I talked to Maripia about the book. So if you've
1:33.9	ever had trouble sleeping, this one's for you. This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things and other currencies.
1:50.5	With Wise, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate,
	...

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