Quick answer
Eggs, fish, nuts, some mushrooms, cereals and sprouted seeds have the most melatonin among foods. The amounts are tiny: tart cherries hold about 13 ng per gram, so matching a 1 mg supplement would take roughly 75 kg of them. A critical review doubts that any effects of these foods come from their melatonin.1,2
Key facts
- Pistachios have the highest amount reported in any food, about 233,000 ng per gram of dry weight, from a single analysis.1
- Mushrooms are among the richer foods: about 4,300 to 12,900 ng per gram of dry weight across three kinds.1
- Green and black tea had no detectable melatonin in testing, while coffee and wine did.1
- Beer held about 0.09 ng per mL, while some wines reached about 130 ng per mL.1
Which foods contain melatonin
Among animal foods, eggs and fish contain more melatonin than meat. Milk contains it too, and milk collected at night holds about ten times as much as milk collected in the day.1
Among plant foods, nuts have the highest amounts reported, and some mushrooms, cereals and sprouted legumes or seeds are also relatively high. Fruits generally have the least.1
Sprouting raises the melatonin in seeds: about fivefold in soybeans and more than elevenfold in mung beans.1
| Food | Melatonin reported | Measured as |
|---|---|---|
| Tart cherries | About 13 ng per gram | Fresh weight |
| Strawberries | About 11 ng per gram | Fresh weight |
| Tomatoes | About 15 to 24 ng per gram | Fresh weight |
| Peppers | About 12 ng per gram | Fresh weight |
| Barley, oats and wheat | About 82 to 125 ng per gram | Fresh weight |
| Common white mushrooms | About 4,300 to 6,400 ng per gram | Dry weight |
| Pistachios, one report | About 233,000 ng per gram | Dry weight |
Dry-weight figures look larger because the water has been taken out, so they cannot be compared directly with fresh foods.
How food compares with a supplement
A 1 mg supplement contains 1,000,000 ng of melatonin. At about 13 ng per gram, that is the melatonin in roughly 75 kg of tart cherries. At about 125 ng per gram, it is roughly 8 kg of wheat.1
The amount varies widely within one food: 58 kinds of corn held from 10 to 2,034 ng per gram of dry weight. Some older lab methods may also overestimate melatonin in food.1
So a list of melatonin-rich foods is really a list of foods with a little more than others. None of them comes close to a supplement dose.1
Does eating them raise your melatonin?
In a study of 12 healthy men, eating bananas or drinking orange or pineapple juice raised blood melatonin from about 32 to 48 pg/mL to about 140 to 150 pg/mL, with the highest levels 2 hours later.1
In a 7-day crossover trial in 20 healthy adults, tart cherry juice concentrate raised the total melatonin measured in urine compared with a placebo drink.3
A 2017 critical review argued that the rises in blood melatonin reported after eating melatonin-rich foods are larger than the melatonin in the food could explain, and that any effects of these foods are unlikely to come from their low melatonin content.2
A 2020 review of eight placebo-controlled trials of milk or tart cherry juice reported results that favored them for sleep quality, but the amounts and lengths of the trials varied widely. Whether any effect comes from melatonin or from something else in the food is not settled.2,4
Tryptophan, serotonin and melatonin
The body makes melatonin from the essential amino acid tryptophan, by way of serotonin.4
Tryptophan is a building block, not melatonin itself, and it comes from protein foods. The tryptophan guide covers its food sources and what supplements of it do.4
What's in ours
What’s in ours
- Sleep: Melatonin, 2 mg per serving, from the label
Two capsules of our Sleep formula list 2 mg of melatonin. At the level reported for tart cherries, matching that would take roughly 150 kg of fruit.1
Questions people ask
Do tart cherries help you sleep?
In one 7-day trial of 20 healthy adults, tart cherry juice concentrate raised urinary melatonin, and time in bed and total sleep measured with a wrist monitor were longer than with placebo. It is a single small trial, and a critical review argues the melatonin in such foods is too little to explain effects like these.2,3
Do bananas contain melatonin?
Yes, in small amounts. In a study of 12 healthy men, eating bananas raised blood melatonin from about 32 to 140 pg/mL two hours later, although a critical review questions whether food can raise blood levels that much.1,2
Does milk at night have more melatonin?
Yes. Studies summarized in a 2017 review found milk collected at night held about ten times as much melatonin as daytime milk. Even so, the amount is far below a supplement dose.1
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Sources
- Meng X, Li Y, Li S, et al. Dietary Sources and Bioactivities of Melatonin. Nutrients. 2017;9(4):367. Opened 2026-10-07.
- Kennaway DJ. Are the proposed benefits of melatonin-rich foods too hard to swallow? Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017;57(5):958-962. Opened 2026-10-07.
- Howatson G, Bell PG, Tallent J, et al. Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality. Eur J Nutr. 2012;51(8):909-916. Opened 2026-10-07.
- Pereira N, Naufel MF, Ribeiro EB, Tufik S, Hachul H. Influence of Dietary Sources of Melatonin on Sleep Quality: A Review. J Food Sci. 2020;85(1):5-13. Opened 2026-10-07.
This page is information, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your own situation.