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About This Resource

What It Does

This article will teach you about:

How diet affects mood
How sleep affects mood
How to develop better habits

How It Helps

This tool can help you:

Make healthier food choices
Establish good sleep habits
Relax before bedtime

This article will teach you about:

How diet affects mood
How sleep affects mood
How to develop better habits

This tool can help you:

Make healthier food choices
Establish good sleep habits
Relax before bedtime

In addition to resources like this one, Homewood Health and Kids Help Phone also offer 24/7 confidential counselling at no cost.

If you'd like to speak to somebody, you can call or text the numbers below:

📞 Phone. Call 1-866-585-0445 (Adults) or 1-888-668-6810 (Youth) to speak with a counsellor.

📱 Text (SMS). Text WELLNESS to 741741 (Adult) or 686868 (Youth) to connect with a trained volunteer crisis responder for support.

However, If you’re interested in finding more resources like this one, including self-guided courses, webinars, peer-to-peer support groups, live counselling, mindfulness meditations, and more, you can create an account for free. You’ll also be able to complete a wellness assessment and track your progress towards your wellness goals.


This resource is part of a series on low mood and depression. You can find the other parts here:

1. Intro | 2. Healthy Habits | 3. Manage your feelings | 4. Get active | 5. Reduce Tension | 6. Stay connected


Eat well

One of the basics of self-care is to eat well. Your body’s physical state can influence your mood, stress levels, and health. Thus, always strive to eat a good, balanced diet to fuel it with proper nutrients.

Be sure that your daily food choices include:

  • Grain products. You could eat whole-grain cereal or bread, barley or brown rice, muffins made with bran flour, and pasta.

  • Vegetables and fruit. Particularly the dark green and orange varieties like broccoli, carrots, and oranges.

  • Milk and milk products. For example, yogurt, cottage cheese, and puddings.

  • Meat and lean protein alternatives. For example, chicken, fish, lentils, eggs, peanut butter, and tofu.

  • Healthy fats. Examples of healthy fats include nuts and seeds, fatty fish, avocadoes, and vegetable oils.

You can consult Canada's Food Guide for more information on nutrition. It also has other resources, such as healthy recipes.

Develop good sleep habits

Good sleep habits lead to better sleep. In turn, this improves mood and reduces stress and tension, leaving you feeling more energized and refreshed.

Good sleep is important for everyone. But everyone has different sleep requirements. Use your own internal wisdom to decide how much sleep is right for you. Try these tips:

  • Do something relaxing, like reading a book or taking a warm bath before going to bed.

  • Avoid caffeine for at least 4 hours before bedtime. Caffeine is found in foods such as chocolate. It’s also in drinks like coffee, tea, and soft drinks (especially colas).

  • If you are not asleep about a half hour after lying down, get up and do something
    relaxing until you feel drowsy.
    Then, go back to bed.

  • Never use your bed for activities other than sleeping and intimacy. For example,
    don’t lie in bed while eating or watching television. Keep the bed a place for rest.

  • Avoid alcohol in the evening. Even a small amount of alcohol like a glass of sherry
    can disrupt your sleep. Larger amounts of alcohol will interfere with sleep more.

  • Try the relaxation techniques from the “reduce tension” section of this course. Do them while lying in bed. For example, try visualizing a peaceful, calm scene.

If you still have trouble falling asleep, see your physician. Sometimes sleeplessness is a sign of depression. In that case, it can then be improved by treating the depression. Sometimes physicians may prescribe a brief course of sleep-aid medication.

Note that any medication to aid sleep should only be used for a few days, not on a regular basis.