Will a Bedtime Snack Help You Fall Asleep?

Many people have difficulty falling asleep from time to time. For some, the solution may be as simple as finding just the right bedtime snack.

Is Peanut Butter a Good Bedtime Snack?

Q. My mother is an independent 86-year-old who suffers from lousy sleep. She has trouble falling asleep and, when she does, she sleeps for only a couple of hours. One solution she’s found is to have a tablespoon of peanut butter before bed.

So, here’s my question: can peanut butter help someone fall asleep?

A. We’ve never heard of using a tablespoon of peanut butter as a bedtime snack, but we wanted to see if there were any studies. To our great surprise, a controlled study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (April 29, 2024).

The scientists recruited 40 firefighters, 20 in the peanut butter group and 20 in the control group. They all completed questionnaires and wore an Actigraph wristwatch to record their sleep. For seven weeks, those in the intervention group consumed two tablespoons of peanut butter two hours before bedtime. Unlike your mother, however, they did not notice any improvement in sleep.

The only problem with a tablespoon of peanut butter as a bedtime snack is the possibility of choking on it.

Could Banana Serve as a Bedtime Snack?

Q. Some time ago, I read that a mother solved her child’s sleeping problem by giving him a banana to eat.

I did not pay attention to this until one day I decided to try it for myself. Lo and behold, it worked. I had a sound sleep all night.

Now I eat half a banana before I go to bed. I am not saying that this will work for everyone, but it worked for me.

A. We don’t know why eating half a banana before bed would work against insomnia. Perhaps the minerals (potassium and magnesium) in the fruit are helping, or maybe the slight carbohydrate boost at bedtime is beneficial.

For a young child, a healthy snack like a bit of banana could be part of a comforting bedtime routine (Sleep Medicine Reviews, Aug. 2018).

People are often advised not to snack late in the evening to avoid nighttime reflux. MR commented:

“Eating anything before bed other than a piece of fruit (possibly with a little peanut butter) makes me very restless and unable to sleep well. I take B12 daily and spirulina with dinner, both to increase melatonin production. A friend says that taking reishi mushroom extract early in the morning and a half hour before bed helps her. I also try to get to bed by 10:00 or 10:30, or else I often get a ‘second wind’ and can’t get to sleep for hours.”

Since bananas have been used as a remedy for heartburn, this approach should not pose a problem.

Warm Milk Is a Time-Honored Bedtime Snack:

Also remember the remedy grandmothers used to offer small children having trouble getting to sleep: a cup of warm milk with a bit of honey in it. People who can’t handle lactose will have to skip it, but if milk doesn’t cause digestive upset, this remedy can be quite comforting. In fact, a small study found that either a cup of whole milk or a portion of banana as a bedtime snack improved sleep in volunteers with insomnia (Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dec. 2024).

Learn More:

Our Guide to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep contains many other non-drug approaches to overcoming sleeplessness.