Could Cheese Be the Secret to Better Sleep?

Sleep apnea impacts about 30 million American adults, making it a common sleep disorder. But while plenty of people struggle with symptoms like loud snoring, daytime sleepiness, and morning headaches, new research suggests that a simple tweak to your diet might lower your risk of developing sleep apnea: eating cheese.

That’s the major takeaway from a recent study published in the journal Sleep Medicine. For the study, researchers analyzed data from 400,000 people who participated in two long-term studies, the UK Biobank and the FinnGen Biobank. The researchers discovered that people who ate cheese had a 28% lower risk of having sleep apnea than those who didn’t. Not only that, the data found that eating cheese influenced 23 biomarkers linked to sleep apnea. (Biomarkers, in case you’re not familiar with them, are molecules found in the blood that can indicate what’s happening in the body.)

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“These findings underscore the potential of dietary interventions in public health strategies aimed at decreasing sleep apnea prevalence and associated health risks,” the researchers concluded.

It sounds like eating cheese may lower your risk of developing sleep apnea, but doctors who treat the condition say the link is more complicated than that. Here’s what could be behind this.

Why is cheese linked with a lower risk of sleep apnea?

It’s important to stress this upfront: The study simply found a link between eating cheese and a lowered risk of sleep apnea. Meaning that it didn’t find that cheese will actually reduce the risk. Instead, people who eat cheese are less likely to have sleep apnea than non-cheese eaters.

But doctors say that some elements of cheese might help lower the risk of sleep apnea — in theory. Weight gain and inflammation are linked to a higher risk of developing sleep apnea, and weight loss can help reduce that risk or even eliminate it entirely, says Kevin Shayani, MD, chief fellow of pulmonary and critical care at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital.

“There is some association in this study with cheese consumption and a reduction in inflammation and enzymes that are elevated in sleep apnea,” Shayani says. “It seems that, in those that consume cheese in addition to their normal diet, there may be some protective effect as it pertains to sleep apnea.” That includes an increase in certain markers that suggest someone has a healthy metabolism, like higher levels of HDL (aka “good” cholesterol) and testosterone.

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But there may be something in the cheese itself that could explain the link, says Kaitlin Storck Potts, PhD, a research fellow studying the intersection of sleep and diet at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. We just aren’t sure what they are right now.

Potts also points out that the findings aren’t totally out there. “This is in line with some previous research,” she says. “Adherence to healthy dietary patterns, including consumption of low-fat dairy and limited full-fat dairy, and diets with low inflammatory potential, have been associated with lower risk of sleep apnea in prior research,” she says. Some studies also suggest that having more dairy is linked with better sleep quality, which could include sleep apnea symptoms, Potts says.

But it’s also possible that this is all just a random link, says W. Christopher Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast. “More investigation is needed,” he says.

Should you eat cheese for sleep apnea?

It’s exciting to think that adding more cheese to your plate will help lower your risk of sleep apnea, but doctors stop short of recommending this hack. “While this association is certainly exciting, it is far from perfect and should not give people free rein to consume excessive amounts of cheese and dairy products,” Shayani says.

Not all cheese is created equal, and cheese can also lead to weight gain — which is a risk factor for sleep apnea, he points out. “There are ‘healthy’ cheeses which are higher in protein, lower in fat, and rich in nutrients and key vitamins which may have contributed to the positive association seen in this study,” Shayani says. But most people eat more than cheese, making it hard to pin this all on the dairy product, he says.

How to lower your sleep apnea risk

If you’re concerned about your sleep apnea risk, doctors recommend trying to maintain a healthy weight first. “The most durable and effective lifestyle modification to reduce sleep apnea risk and severity is weight loss,” says David Kent, MD, director of sleep surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “There is a much higher prevalence of sleep apnea in people who are overweight compared to those with a normal body mass index.”

But sleep apnea can be caused by more than weight. If you’re snoring loudly at night or have other symptoms of the condition, Winter says it’s best to check in with a doctor about a sleep study.

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