Abstract: Sleep is the foundation of health. Good and adequate sleep is conducive to accumulate body energy reserves, maintain brain function, improve human immunity, etc.. Improving sleep is very important to maintain human health and improve the quality of life. Compared with psychotropic chemical drugs used to treat insomnia, the application of natural food and medicinal resources to improve sleep disorders is safer with less drug resistance and drug dependence, and is a sustainable slow conditioning mode. Based on a large number of literature reports, this paper systematically summarizes and analyzes the main types of sleep-improving food and medicinal resources, such as common foods, Chinese medicinal materials for both culinary and medicinal purposes, and Chinese medicinal diets, as well as their functional mechanisms and applications in health foods. The purpose of this review is to provide a reference for the high value utilization of sleep-improving food and medicinal resources and the research and development of sleep-improving health foods.

Key words: improvement of sleep; food and medicinal resources; functional mechanism; health foods