STRANGE Sleep Fix Sitting in Your Fridge Right Now

By Dr. Scott Olson, ND Posted August 22, 2025

It’s not the kind of advice you hear every day… “Sleeping poorly? Eat more fruits and veggies.”

From counting sheep to weighted blankets, people have come up with countless ways to try to get a good night’s rest.

But what if the solution to better sleep has been sitting in your produce drawer all along?

A groundbreaking new study suggests that the answer to deeper, more restful sleep is as simple as loading up on fruits and vegetables during the day.

Here’s what you need to know…

We’ve all been there—after a night of tossing and turning, you reach for fatty, sugar-filled comfort foods, and they leave you feeling even worse.

But what if the opposite were true, too?

A new study, published in Sleep Health: The Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, was the first to uncover a direct link between what we eat during the day and objectively measured sleep quality that same night.

The healthy young adults who participated in the study tracked their daily meals with an app and wore a wrist monitor so researchers could measure their sleep patterns.

The scientists specifically looked at “sleep fragmentation,” an index that reflects how often someone awakens or shifts from deep to light sleep throughout the night.

In other words, the more your sleep gets interrupted—even if you don’t remember waking up—the less restorative it is.

The researchers found that what the volunteers ate each day was directly linked to meaningful differences in the quality of their sleep that night.

But what was even more surprising was that their sleep was affected immediately.

Participants who ate more fruits and vegetables during the day had deeper, more uninterrupted sleep that same night, as did those who chose more healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains.

The researchers estimate that those who eat the CDC-recommended five cups of fruits and veggies daily could experience a 16 percent improvement in sleep quality compared to those who skip them altogether.

One in three adults doesn’t regularly get the recommended amount of quality, uninterrupted sleep. These sleep disruptions don’t just leave you feeling cranky the next day—they can have far-reaching consequences, harming heart and metabolic health, memory, learning ability, productivity, and mood.

But you don’t have to spend hundreds on fancy mattresses, trendy sleep apps, and high-tech gadgets to get better sleep. For the cost of a few apples and a bag of spinach you could get even better results.

Here’s your five-point action plan for getting better sleep, starting tonight…

• Keep it Simple: To start, add one extra serving of fruits or vegetables to each meal—like a handful of berries with breakfast, a side salad at lunch, and an extra helping of vegetables at dinner. When you add in a couple of produce-aisle snacks, you’ve reached your goal.
• Focus on Whole Foods: The study showed benefits from actual fruits and vegetables, not supplements or processed foods claiming to contain them.
• Think Complex Carbs: Choose whole grains such as brown rice, oats, and quinoa over refined ones such as white rice, pasta, and white bread.
• Track Your Progress: A food and sleep diary can help you track how you sleep on days when you eat more produce versus days when you don’t.
• Be Consistent: While the study showed same-day effects, the researchers emphasize that regularly eating more fruits and veggies is key for long-term sleep benefits.

You don’t need a prescription, expensive equipment, or complicated protocols to get quality rest. Better sleep is just five servings of fruits and vegetables away.

And the best part? You could see results as early as tonight.

And another thing…
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P.S. Could poor sleep be hurting your brain?

Source:

Boege, Hedda L. et al., Higher daytime intake of fruits and vegetables predicts less disrupted nighttime sleep in younger adults, 06.11.25, Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, Volume 0, Issue 0