Sleep supplements dominate the pharmacy aisle, but a growing body of clinical evidence suggests some of the most useful nudges toward better rest come from the fridge and the pantry.
A scoping review published in April 2026 in Food Science and Nutrition pooled 19 studies covering more than 32,000 participants and concluded that melatonin-rich foods such as Montmorency tart cherries, Jerte Valley cherries, tomatoes and kiwifruit can contribute to better sleep quality, duration and efficiency.
The review, led by researchers at the University of Southern Queensland, cautions that melatonin content alone does not explain the effects. Polyphenols, tryptophan, serotonin and antioxidants likely act together.
Study sizes are often small, and only one of the 19 trials used polysomnography, the gold-standard laboratory measure of sleep.
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Here is how the evidence looks for eight foods people can actually add to a normal diet.
Walnuts
The strongest new signal comes from walnuts. A randomized crossover trial published in September 2025 in Food and Function followed 76 young adults, mostly women, who ate 40 grams of walnuts with dinner every day for eight weeks. Evening urinary levels of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin, a biomarker of melatonin production, rose significantly, and participants fell asleep faster, slept better overall and reported less daytime sleepiness. The researchers stressed that walnuts contain many nutrients beyond melatonin, so the hormone is not necessarily the sole reason.
Tart cherries
Montmorency tart cherries are the most studied food in this space, with eight trials of juice, concentrate and powder included in the 2026 review. A randomized crossover trial published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2012 found that seven days of tart cherry juice raised circulating melatonin and increased time in bed, total sleep time and sleep efficiency in healthy adults. Benefits appear most consistent in people who already sleep poorly.
Kiwifruit
A small trial from Taipei Medical University had 24 adults with self-reported sleep problems eat two kiwifruits an hour before bed for four weeks. Sleep onset latency, the time to fall asleep, dropped by about 35 percent, and total sleep time rose by roughly 13 percent. The 2026 review lists three kiwifruit studies with generally positive but mixed results.
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Tomatoes
One study in obese postmenopausal women, cited by the 2026 review, gave participants 250 grams of beefsteak tomatoes and found a tenfold increase in urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin alongside improved sleep quality. This is a single trial in a specific population, so the finding is intriguing rather than definitive.
Strawberries and blueberries
A large observational analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data on more than 29,000 US adults, published in Nutrients in December 2023, linked higher intake of strawberries and blueberries to a 10 to 17 percent lower risk of short sleep, defined as less than seven hours a night. Because this is cross-sectional data it cannot prove that berries cause better sleep, only that berry eaters tend to sleep longer.
Chamomile
Chamomile is not a food, but the tea and extract have the clearest herbal evidence. A 2017 randomized trial in Complementary Therapies in Medicine gave 60 elderly nursing-home residents 200 mg of chamomile extract twice daily for four weeks and found significantly better Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores compared with placebo. Chamomile is generally regarded as safe, but people on blood thinners or with ragweed allergies should talk to a doctor first.
Almonds and oats
Almonds and oats appear in the 2026 review largely on the strength of their melatonin content, measured at roughly 39 ng per gram for almonds and 7.7 ng per gram for oats, plus tryptophan, an amino acid the body uses to make serotonin and melatonin. The authors are explicit that nuts such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts remain underexamined in dedicated sleep trials and are a priority for future research. In other words, the biological rationale is real, but human sleep data specific to almonds and oats are still thin.
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What this means in practice
None of these foods works like a sedative, and the effect sizes reported in the strongest trials are modest.
The 2026 review notes that older adults tend to respond more strongly than young, healthy sleepers, and that many studies rely on self-reported sleep rather than objective measures.
The reasonable takeaway is that a handful of walnuts, a bowl of berries or a mug of chamomile in the evening is a low-risk experiment that may nudge sleep in the right direction, especially alongside a consistent bedtime and less late-night screen light.
Anyone with persistent insomnia should see a doctor rather than rely on diet alone.
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