Dr Michael Mosley opens up about his insomnia and diet

Science presenter and journalist, Dr Michael Mosley, opens up about his chronic insomnia and how our diet can impact our sleep ahead of his brand-new SBS series.

Credit: Australia's Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley.

— Australia's Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley premieres Wednesday 6 March at 7.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand. —

‘How did you sleep last night?’ It’s a simple enough question that you’d assume SBS’ favourite doctor, Michael Mosley, would respond to with a slumbered response.

But the truth is British journalist and science presenter Dr Mosley is a chronic insomniac — and he's just like millions of other people across the world who can’t sleep at night no matter how badly they want to or try.

“I've had chronic insomnia for about 25 years, ever since my late 30s,” Dr Mosley tells SBS. “[Back then] we had four children and I was working incredibly hard. So I started waking up at 3 a.m., worrying about life.

"It never really got better.”

According to Sleep Health Foundation research, almost 60 per cent of people regularly experience at least one sleep symptom. They either can’t fall asleep, stay asleep or both. Either way, they’re just not getting enough quality shut-eye to feel as healthy and happy as they could be.

Although Dr Mosley says he can fall asleep easily, he wakes up too early and can't get back to sleep. “I discovered recently that when you look on Google Trends, the most popular time people look for insomnia [tips online] is at 3 AM.

“They’ve woken up, have their phone by the bed, they can't go to sleep and so they look up insomnia treatments. It’s unbelievably common.”

The Sleep Health Foundation estimates that around 15 per cent of adults have symptoms that could result in a diagnosis of clinical insomnia.

Studies show that insomnia can lead to obesity, diabetes impaired glucose tolerance, cardiovascular disease hypertension and anxiety symptoms.

“Everyone has the odd night where you can’t sleep but insomnia is when you can’t sleep night after night and it's consistent week after week.

“When you wake up, you're tired. You fall asleep on the sofa. You don't have any energy to play with your kids. I've seen people fall asleep at the wheel and a lot of road traffic accidents are caused by insomnia. If you feel terrible during the day and you keep on wanting to go to sleep, that's when you have insomnia.”

Food and insomnia

Over the years, Dr Mosley has tried many different methods to ‘fix’ his insomnia. He’s established a regular sleep pattern, moved his phone to the other side of the room so it wouldn’t disturb his rest and used herbal remedies.

The journalist, known worldwide for advocating the benefits of intermittent fasting, has also tried to overcome his sleep issues through dietary changes.

“Eating a fibre-rich diet seems to be a good way of improving the quality and depth of your sleep. There are also loads of studies, which have shown that people who eat a broadly Mediterranean-style diet and cut back on junk food tend to sleep better and get more deep sleep.”

Eating a fibre-rich diet seems to be a good way of improving the quality and depth of your sleep.

Despite an in-depth knowledge of nutrition and many attempts to make lifestyle changes, nothing ‘cured’ Dr Mosley’s insomnia. However, he says, dietary changes helped him to lose weight and that, in turn, reduced his snoring.

“Food and diet are very useful starting points. By improving your diet, you can improve your sleep. But whether it will cure your [chronic insomnia] is another matter.

“You may need to consider other interventions beyond dietary modifications if you have clinical insomnia.”

Starting a sleep revolution

Driven by his personal experience of insomnia, Dr Mosley recently participated in a new three-part documentary series, Australia's Sleep Revolution, available on SBS and SBS On Demand from Wednesday, 6 March 2024.

During the series, the chronic insomniac joined 30 of the nation’s worst sleepers to trial a dramatically different sleep treatment program, run by Flinders University Sleep Health Team.

“We took the opportunity to have very clever people look at our sleep patterns and study them… the series showed that a range of possible interventions [can be employed to help people sleep].”

There are so many different sleep issues. So there is no one answer to everyone’s sleep problems.

The humbling series offers people facing chronic sleep problems a sense of hope and presents everyone else with a health reminder. Insomnia is a varied condition that can affect anyone – even a popular British doctor.

“There are so many different sleep issues. That's why there is no one answer to everyone’s sleep problems.

“To find your answer, you have to start by working out what your sleep hurdle is. Then, just go from there.”