What is the effect of diet on sleep allowances?

Question

This website http://www.theminimalists.com/diet/ claims that "...because of diet and exercise, I need less sleep than I used to. Most mornings I wake around 3:30 a.m., after five or six hours of sleep". According to https://sleepfoundation.org/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times (admittedly, a more reputable source on matters of health) they recommend that "Adults (26-64)" sleep "7-9 hours" per night. I understand that this applies to the average adult, so it seems that the first source could be true. So this made me wonder, what effect (if any) does diet have on someone's sleep?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Exercise can improve sleep quality, as demonstrated for instance here, so maybe this improved quality reduces the needed quantity of sleep. It has been claimed that the practice of yoga reduces sleep needs, and long-term yoga practice has been linked to better sleep quality. As for diet and sleep, there are indeed correlations, but these may vary and it seems the impact could go both ways. In particular, sleep deprivation has been linked to increased caloric intake. Closer to your question, a study on the effects of diet on sleep quality has shown evidence of the impact of certain foods on sleep quality, but concludes on the necessity of more studies on the subject.