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Our children's sleep can be impacted by all sorts of things but sometimes the food and drink they consume can affect their sleep. Sleep is precious – and can have a knock-on effect on other aspects of our lives – so if we can help our children sleep better, it's worth it.

In this article we’ll explain why sleep is important for children, and how you can modify what they eat to help optimise how they sleep. It's not a quick fix, habits take time to break and changing food and drink won't work for every child. But understanding the link between food and sleep can be useful. Making some of the suggested swaps and changes can be good in other ways too, even if sleep doesn't change.

Sleep and diet are closely linked. How we eat, particularly later in the day, can really affect our body’s ability to get to sleep. Similarly, how well we sleep can affect how we feel and how we eat the next day.

Poorer sleep affects concentration, memory and behaviour the following day. If children go to bed even an hour later than normal, the next day they can be more irritable, struggle to pay attention and find it harder to learn. In a survey carried out by the British Nutrition Foundation, a third (32%) of primary school children (aged seven and over) reported getting less than nine hours sleep the night before, which is below the recommended amount for their age. According to a 2022 study of children and teenagers in England, almost six out of ten (57%) 15-year-old girls reported not getting enough sleep to feel awake and concentrate on schoolwork. So, making sure that bedtime routines are consistent, and children get the sleep they need is one of the best things we can do for their wellbeing.

Research shows that children sleep better when they get the nutrients they need. Processed foods often lack essential vitamins and minerals, potentially leading to deficiencies and making it harder for the body to produce melatonin, which is our natural sleep hormone. Eating a varied diet means we get the nutrients that support good sleep, and if children sleep well the adults tend to sleep better too. It’s worth noting though that some children with ARFID are reliant on processed foods to meet their energy requirements for growth and without these would become severely malnourished.

Drinking enough is important too, especially water, as hydration affects body temperature and therefore sleep quality. You can use our to help you to understand if your child is drinking enough. If your child needs encouragement to drink more water, use our and play a water-drinking challenge game!

How much sleep does a seven-year-old need compared to a 15-year-old? Use this box to work out how many hours of sleep your child needs by age:

As recommended by (GOSH).

Better sleep correlates with lower risks of obesity. Research shows that for children – having less than ten hours sleep per night is linked to an increase in obesity. When we sleep less, there’s an increase in our hunger hormones, so we tend to crave more sugary, fatty foods the next day.

Making small but powerful changes can impact positively on diet and sleep. As always, consistency is key when creating new routines.

1. Make sure you have your evening meal a couple of hours before bedtime. A late tea or dinnertime means a later bedtime. Eating large meals before bed impacts on a child’s ability to get a good night’s sleep. It’s better for children to have an earlier evening meal followed by a small snack, such as a small bowl of wholegrain cereal or toast with a glass of milk around an hour before bed, if they need it. This gives plenty of time after dinner to digest and unwind.

Try our tips for healthy snacking for simple snack suggestions you can make in under ten minutes.

2. Excessive sugar can disrupt sleep patterns by causing energy spikes and crashes. Try to have just water or diluted no-added-sugar squash (one part squash to ten parts water) with and after dinner. Avoid fizzy or carbonated drinks, chocolate, sugary foods, juice, caffeine and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in the hours before bedtime. These can interfere with the production of melatonin which is our natural sleep hormone, and less melatonin makes it much more difficult to settle and get to sleep.

Learn more about sugar and get tips on how to cut down your child’s sugar intake.

3. Good bedtime routines are really important in promoting positive sleep habits. Making sure that devices are off at least an hour before bedtime helps the body to prepare for sleep. Doing a calm activity like reading, having a bath or listening to soft music also helps to reduce any stress. Ensuring that bedrooms are comfortable, safe, dark and cool all promote good sleep hygiene and help to get a good, restful sleep. If your children need help to relax and ease into sleep, you could practise deep breathing exercises together, use guided imagery or visualisation techniques to help them relax or use progressive muscle relaxation – teaching them to tense and then relax different muscle groups throughout the body.

4. Though currently more research is needed, it has been suggested by some experts that certain foods may help children sleep. Calcium helps the brain to make melatonin, a natural hormone that helps promote sleep. Milk, cheese and yoghurt are good sources of calcium. A warm glass of milk before bed is a traditional remedy for sleep troubles. Plant-based milks fortified with calcium will have the same effect. Some foods also naturally contain melatonin. These include cherries, grapes and tomatoes.

If you’re ready to give it a go, try our to monitor how much sleep your child is getting over a one-week period. Keep a note of any changes in your child's development or in their mood and behaviour, as these could be contributing factors toward good or poor sleep routines.

Use alongside the to see any links between what your child eats and if this may have affected how they sleep.

If your child has eaten within 60-90 minutes of going to bed and not done any big activity in-between, then they’re probably not actually hungry. They may be thirsty instead so offer some water or a glass of milk.

If you want more advice about children and sleep Parents' Toolkit has an article from the late Michael Mosley: Five tips for helping your kids sleep well and an article exploring ways to get your child’s sleep back on track.

Advice and expertise across our Happy Family Eating content was provided by children’s dietitian Angharad Banner - an independent and NHS dietitian.