Eat Better, Sleep Better: 75 Recipes and A 28-Day Meal Plan That Unlock the Food-Sleep Connection

by Dr Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Kat Craddock

What you eat directly impacts how you sleep. Science-based and easy to understand, Eat Better, Sleep Better includes 75 recipes that incorporate sleep-supporting ingredients that work with the body’s rhythms and hormones to unlock quality rest—and the health benefits that come with it.

More than half of all Americans have difficulty falling or staying asleep. Drawing on the science that has made her the go-to expert on the connection between food and sleep, Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge pairs her comprehensive strategies for getting a good night’s sleep with Kat Craddock’s 75 recipes. Developed with ingredients that trigger the body’s dietary melatonin and serotonin, these recipes align with a Mediterranean diet and trigger a healthy circadian cycle, so you feel energetic during the day and ready for sleep at night. Eat Better, Sleep Better is for anyone who wants food to be the medicine for getting quality sleep. Here, too, is a 28-day meal plan that takes the guess work out of what to eat when so you can start eating—and sleeping—better than ever.

The recipes, are easy to prepare, satisfying, and delicious. They include the
-Easy In-a-Hurry Egg-and-Cheese with Salsa Roja, Make-Ahead Morning Muffins, Overnight Oats with Ginger, Compote, and Walnuts
-Salads and Chilled Out Soba Salad with Edamame and Sesame-Ginger Vinaigrette, Creamy Lemon-Turkey Soup with Barley and Mint
-Side Dishes and Meatless Soy-Braised Butternut Squash with Miso Butter and Black Sesame, Mushroom “Carbonara” with Broccoli Rabe and Parmesan, Focaccia with Beefsteak Tomatoes and Olives
-Low-stress Evening Portuguese-Style Tomato Rice with Mussels and Scallops, Grilled Chicken Cutlets with Midsummer Mostarda, Pan-Seared Halibut with Barley-Artichoke Risotto
-Sweets for Sesame Shortbread Cookies, Easy Stonefruit Sorbet, Chamomile-Ginger Panna Cotta

Genres: Cookbooks, Health, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2025

Reviews

[Suzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was maybe just an excerpt...a bit of science behind eating combinations of foods. Unfortunately no recipes, so it's a bit difficult to evaluate this book. I guess it's intended to just give you a taste (no pun intended!).

[Jeanette Durkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the excerpt of the book that I received, it certainly seems interesting. I'd like to read it in its entirety before giving a final review.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only 36 pages of this book were supplied by NetGalley in the advanced reader copy. While it had some great information on food and sleep. There were no recipes or the 28 day meal plan as promised.

[T · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sighs deeply. Here we go again. Another cookbook by not one but 2 privileged white women who have made such an unobtainable and fanciful cookbook that will only benefit the rich. And I say this as a white woman.

This is such a tone deaf cookbook. The recipes are needlessly fussy and require difficult to source ingredients that are also very expensive. Do they not realize that not everyone can trot off to Whole Foods or a Farmer’s Market multiple times per week? The general public is tired and poor. And yet these recipes that are supposed to help the tireds actually price them out so only add to the exhaustion.

Also? FOOD DESERTS EXIST.

These authors need to do better. And also check their privilege.

PS - these recipes themselves don’t start until 40% in (Kindle version). Really, don’t waste your time.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone with a sleep disorder, I was very interested in this book. The first part explores the correlation between what we eat and sleep, and gives general tips about getting a better night's sleep. Some of this guidance you may have heard before; some of it will probably be new to most people. The recipes section correlates to the forward in the sense it has a lot of 'good fat' and tryptophan-rich foods, but you might be able to eat differently and still reap the benefits of the food-sleep connection. The recipes didn't account too much for things like heartburn, and the breakfasts were a lot of smoothies/overnight oats. The strongest chapter was the salads. And nutritional information isn't provided, though most of these recipes are pretty healthy.
I thought the beginning of the book, before the recipes, was thought provoking and helpful. I didn't think the recipes added to much to the concept.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I love eating and I love sleeping. I enjoyed learning more about how the two connect and getting some great new recipes. If you are accustomed to whole food recipes and pantries, you'll find these recipes accessible. I checked this out of the library twice and am tabbing to pick up when B&N has their 50% HC sale at the end of the year.
Recipes I enjoyed:
Herbes Salees
Pickled Mushrooms (hello, I never want to run out of these!)
Sleep Better Egg Toast
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Barley Salad
Blackberry-Plum Galette with a Corn Crust (I struggled with this crust)
Sleepy London Fog

Recipes I want to try:
Spiced Buckwheat Porridge
Cocoa Nib Granola
Little Gem Salad
Creamy Lemon Turkey Soup
Smokey Oyster Chowder
Chickpea Gemelli
Spiced Carrots and Parsnips with Tahini-Lemon Sauce
Green Spring Gumbo
Whole Grain Chicken Porridge
Creamy Tahini Cocoa

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Simon Element for the gifted copy, as the e-arc file was incomplete. I was able to review the physical cookbook, which was beautifully photographed, and a great quality cookbook due to its hardcover and high-quality pages. I really was interested in the connection between nutrition and sleep quality, and found so much great information about foods that will help your body give natural cues. The recipes were hearty for the winter, and also can be recreated by novice and experienced cooks.

I think anyone who is interested in improving their health will be interested in this book. I recommend it for all libraries and bookstores.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eat better, Sleep Better focuses on ways to improve one's sleep through recipes and sleep regulation based on science.

The book includes Part 1: Good food, good sleep, good health (the science behind regulating your sleep) and Part 2: Eat Better to Sleep Better: the Plan (how to improve your sleep and recipes)

Unfortunately, I feel I can give an appropriate review to the cookbook as the advanced copy I received didn't have the complete science behind sleep and include the recipes.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. I love that this book references clinical intervention studies. (Research is important)
2. If you'v never learned about sleep or you need a refresher, this is a fantastic source.
3. I most appreciates the low stress evening meals section and the sleep-supporting sippers section.

Overall an enjoyable book from both an information and recipe view.

[Jenn. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed from DC library.

Honestly just got it for the recipes. I did not read through all the introduction & information presented at the beginning of the book. Recipes were laid out and presented well. Beautiful photography. Found a few I wanted to try but not many.

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I thought the information in the beginning was very informative and added to my knowledge. I found the recipes creative and interesting. I liked the helpful information stating which foods had important sleep ingredients.

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cookbook that considers the link between what you eat and how you sleep.

[Anna Catherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book

[Ed Crow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I genuinely wanted to embrace what this book had to offer. I have chronic insomnia and have experienced the ways that eating better can genuinely improve my sleep and reduce nightmares and early morning insomnia episodes. I found a lot of the information in this book valuable.

However, I do feel like the meal plan is inaccessible for most people, and that the book doesn't do enough to acknowledge the socioeconomic factors and privilege that define both ability to access adequate structured rest and the food included in this meal plan. I also felt like the structures and habits presented were too rigid and needed to be presented with more flexibility for when life lifes, like people are going to go out, people are going to stay up late, the inability to create flexibility around that is going to alienate most folks from this book.