A guide to eating, winding down, and sleeping deeply, by NUUDA & Spritz Wellness
Why so many of us sleep badly, even when we're "doing everything right"
You've got the eight hours blocked out. You've stopped doom-scrolling (mostly). You've even bought a fancy pillow, and yet you're still waking up at 3am, or lying there wired when you should be drifting off.
Here's what most sleep advice misses: sleep doesn't start when your head hits the pillow. It starts hours earlier, with what's on your plate, and how you spend the wind down window before bed. Nutrition and ritual are the two missing links, and they work together. Good food gives your body the raw materials to actually produce sleep hormones. A good ritual tells your nervous system it's safe to switch off. Skip either one and you're working against yourself.
That's why we've teamed up with the team at Spritz Wellness sleep and sensory ritual experts, to put together a full, honest guide to what actually moves the needle on sleep quality. Think of it as nutrition and sleep quality meeting sleep hygiene routine, from the inside out and the outside in.
The nutrition-sleep connection, what to eat for better rest
Sleep is a hormonal event before it's anything else. Your body needs to build serotonin during the day, then convert it into melatonin as the light fades and both of those depend on nutrients you get from food, not willpower.
Foods that support melatonin and serotonin production
The building block for both is an amino acid called tryptophan, which your body can't make on its own, it has to come from food. Good sources include turkey, chicken, eggs, oats, seeds (pumpkin and sesame in particular), and legumes. But tryptophan works best alongside a slow-release carbohydrate, which helps it cross into the brain more efficiently, think sweet potato, brown rice, or oats.
Magnesium, tryptophan and the sleep-supporting nutrient stack
If tryptophan is the raw material, magnesium is the mineral that helps the whole system relax. It supports the nervous system directly, helping to quiet the "on" switch that keeps so many of us wired at night. Leafy greens, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and dark chocolate (yes, really) are all good sources. This is one of the reasons magnesium sleep supplements have become such a talking point, but food-first is always the better starting point, and it's harder to overdo it.
Gut health's role in sleep quality
This one surprises people: the majority of your serotonin (up to 95%) is actually produced in the gut, not the brain. A gut that's inflamed, imbalanced, or under strain from ultra-processed food struggles to make the hormones your sleep cycle depends on. Supporting gut health with fibre-rich, whole-food meals isn't just a digestion story, it's a sleep story.
Best NUUDA meals for an evening routine
Lighter meals work better in the evening, leaving your digestive system with less to work through so your body can focus on sleep rather than dinner. This is exactly why our meals are built the way they are, nutritionist-designed, made with whole foods, and free from the ultra-processed additives that put extra strain on your gut. Slow-release carbs, fibre, and clean protein, the combination you'll find across the range, and if you want the lightest option of all, opt for a soup.
Then finish with something sweet that's doing something functional. An oat and almond butter ball or a bircher in place of the usual night-time snack, both naturally rich in tryptophan, ideally two to three hours before bed.
Foods and drinks that quietly wreck your sleep (surprising ones included)
Some of these are obvious. A few really aren't.
Caffeine has a longer half-life than most people realise, and can still be in your system six to eight hours after that "just one" afternoon coffee. Alcohol is the classic saboteur: it might get you to sleep faster, but it fragments the second half of the night and suppresses REM.
Less obvious: sugary foods and refined carbs spike blood sugar, which then dips overnight and can pull you out of sleep entirely, and even sensible-looking choices cause problems, a large glass of water right before bed means night waking, spicy food in the evening means reflux.
Getting the timing right
The meal itself matters less than when you eat it. Aim to finish dinner two to three hours before you plan to sleep, which gives your body time to do the work of digestion before it starts the work of sleeping. Caffeine wants a much earlier cut-off than most people give it, early afternoon rather than early evening, and if you want one thing to change tonight, make it the last hour before bed, no heavy plates, nothing very sugary, nothing very spicy.
Building your wind-down ritual, from your evening meal to lights out
Food sets you up for sleep. Ritual is what actually gets you there.
A wind-down ritual works because it's a signal, a series of cues that tell your nervous system the day is done and it's safe to down regulate. It doesn't need to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent.
A simple structure that works for most people:
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2-3 hours before bed — eat your last full meal, keeping it light and balanced as above.
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60-90 minutes before bed — start dimming lights around the house. This is also a good window for a warm (not hot) shower or bath, which helps trigger the natural drop in body temperature that signals sleep.
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30-60 minutes before bed — screens off, or at least away from your face. This is where a sensory ritual comes in — something that replaces the scroll with a cue your body associates with rest.
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At lights out — this is where scent and darkness do their work, which brings us to Spritz.
Why scent and darkness matter
This is where we hand over to the experts in sensory ritual.
The science behind sleep sprays and aromatherapy
Scent has a uniquely direct line to the brain, aromatic compounds interact with the limbic system, the part of the brain tied to emotion and memory, faster than almost any other sense. Ingredients like lavender, chamomile, and vetiver have been shown to support nervous system down regulation, essentially helping shift your body out of "alert" mode and into "rest" mode. Used consistently, a sleep spray becomes a trigger: your brain learns that scent means it's time to sleep, the same way a certain playlist might.
How an eye mask improves sleep depth
Light even small amounts suppresses melatonin production and can pull you out of deeper sleep stages without you ever fully waking up. An eye mask isn't just about blocking out an early sunrise or a partner's phone screen; full darkness supports the natural melatonin regulation your body is trying to do all night. It's a simple tool that removes one of the biggest, most overlooked disruptors to sleep depth.
Building a pre-bed sensory ritual
The two work best together, alongside a consistent routine: spray, mask, same time each night. It's the repetition, not any single product, that trains your nervous system to associate the ritual with sleep. Give it a couple of weeks before judging whether it's working; like most things involving your nervous system, consistency matters more than any single night.
Light blocking and melatonin regulation
If you take one thing from the Spritz side of this guide, let it be this: darkness isn't just comfort, it's biology. Protecting it, with blackout curtains, an eye mask, or both is one of the simplest, highest-impact changes you can make to sleep depth.
Your full Sleep Formula, night by night
Put together, here's what a full evening looks like:
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3 hours before bed — a light, balanced dinner: clean protein, slow-release carbs, gut-friendly vegetables. Skip the caffeine, go easy on the wine.
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90 minutes before bed — dim the lights, warm shower, screens start to fade out.
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30 minutes before bed — sensory ritual begins: Spritz sleep spray on the pillow, eye mask ready.
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Lights out — full darkness, consistent time, same ritual as the night before.
None of this is about perfection. It's about giving your body, gut, hormones, and nervous system, what it actually needs to do the job it already knows how to do. Real food and a real ritual, built consistently, night after night.