Can changes to your diet help you sleep better?

A review of 21 studies that analyzed the effectiveness of modifying nutritional intake as a treatment for improving sleep found mixed results, as reported in the article “Systematic Review of Dietary Interventions Targeting Sleep Behavior” in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website until May 21, 2016.

In nearly half of the laboratory-based studies, a dietary intervention may have had a significant effect on a key sleep variable, according to the authors of the Review article Adam Paul Knowlden, MBA, PhD, The University of Alabama, Department of Health Science (Tuscaloosa, AL), Christine Hackman, PhD, California Polytechnic State University, Kinesiology Department (San Luis Obispo, CA), and Manoj Sharma, MBBS, PhD, Jackson State University, School of Public Health (Jackson, MS).

Article: Systematic Review of Dietary Interventions Targeting Sleep Behavior, Knowlden Adam P., Hackman Christine L., and Sharma Manoj, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, doi:10.1089/acm.2015.0238, published online 11 April 2016.