What’s the Best Time to Take Your Fish Oil Supplement?

Original Date of Publication: June 11, 2020

Original Author: Bo Martinsen, MD, is an omega-3 specialist, innovator, and advocate for natural foods. As co-founder and CEO of Omega3 Innovations, he has created multiple patented technologies for medical devices designed to improve consumer compliance. He is also the creator of several medical food products that combine dose-effective ingredients of omega-3 fish oil with soluble fibers and other nutrients. Before Omega3 Innovations, Dr. Martinsen practiced medicine in Norway for 20 years. During his career, he also served as a medical consultant to large international corporations, focusing on stress management and synergistic medicine.

Date of Review/Update: February 20, 2026

Reviewer: Kelly Patterson MS, RD, LDN, CSSD

Kelly Patterson the Clinical Nutrition Educator at OmegaQuant. She is a Registered Dietitian with a background in tactical and sports nutrition. Kelly spent much of her career working for the U.S. Army, including 5 years as a tactical performance dietitian for an elite Special Operations Unit at Fort Bragg, NC. Kelly came to OmegaQuant to further her work on performance biomarkers and to help OmegaQuant expand their testing options. Her work focuses on translating Omega-3 research into practical clinical applications to support performance, resilience, and health. Learn more

Breakfast has long been the preferred time for taking medications and nutritional  supplements. And the psychology makes sense. At the start of each day, many of us like to take advantage of our renewed energy to focus on our health.

More recent research, however, has increasingly linked medication efficacy to timing,  and the findings make a compelling case for rescheduling our supplement routines too.

Fish oil is one of the most common omega-3 supplements. From a practical standpoint, you can take it whatever time works best for you as long as you take it with a meal that contains fat. The omega-3s EPA and DHA found in fish oil are fats and they will be absorbed much better if there are other fats on board. When taken on an empty stomach, they won’t be absorbed as well.

VIDEO: Which Omega-3 is Best?

Consider Taking Your Medications and Supplements at Night

Several studies have now demonstrated that certain medications such as aspirin and cholesterol-lowering drugs, as well as blood pressure and anti-reflux medications, may be more effective when taken in the evening (1,2).

Scientists suggest that as we sleep, our body’s circadian rhythm influences our hormonal balance, inflammatory signaling, and gastrointestinal absorption, all of which may affect how the body processes medications and supplements during sleep.

Because many symptoms, associated with conditions such as acid reflux and heart disease, worsen over the course of the night, taking certain medications and supplements before bedtime may actually help to improve health symptom control the following day.

VIDEO: The Unique Role Omega-3s Play in Inflammation

Potential Benefits of Taking Fish Oil at Night

While getting an effective dose of high quality fish oil makes a crucial difference in terms of seeing results, timing may also play a role. Beyond absorption considerations, two potential advantages of taking your fish oil in the evening relate to inflammation and sleep quality.

Emerging evidence in the field of chronopharmacology shows that time of day is an important factor in efficacy of medications. Studies examining common NSAIDs (ibuprofen-type medications) have found they often work better when taken in the evening (3). This appears to be because inflammation and pain tend to rise overnight and peak in the early morning hours, which is why many people with joint pain feel stiff or sore when they wake up.

This concept supports the idea that evening may also be the best time for omega-3s because of their anti-inflammatory action. Taking your fish oil supplement before bed may make it easier to get out of bed in the morning.

Omega-3s have also been associated with improving the quality of sleep. In a pilot study from the UK, researchers found that children supplemented with omega-3s increased their sleep time by an average of 58 minutes while reducing the number of wakeups during the night (4).

Other studies similarly show that adequate omega-3 intake is important for good quality rest, improved relaxation (5) and a lowered risk of sleep apnea (6, 7).

Another study from researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology, and Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health investigated whether plasma concentrations of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA were related to sleep timing and duration in adolescents(8).

Using a subset of the ELEMENT cohort study, the sample included 405 adolescents in Mexico City, ages 9-17, who had actigraphy-assessed sleep as well as plasma measures of long-chain fatty acids.

According to the scientists, “Adolescents with lower concentrations of plasma DHA (specifically, those in the 2nd quartile) had an approximately 45-minute later sleep midpoint compared with the adolescents with the highest concentrations of DHA.”

Although DHA was not associated with sleep duration during the week, “it was associated with a 30-minute longer sleep duration on weekends, when sleep time is less likely to be restricted by school or work obligations,” the researchers said.

“Given that even a 20-30 minute increase in sleep duration can be beneficial for children in terms of emotional control and academic outcomes, the magnitudes of the reported associations are clinically meaningful and suggest a potential role of dietary omega-3 DHA in promoting healthy sleep among adolescents,” they said.

While the most important consideration in omega-3 supplementation is dosage, evidence is emerging that for certain people, timing may be a crucial factor. Those experiencing morning joint stiffness or sleep disturbances may benefit from taking their omega-3 supplement in the evening to better optimize their health.

VIDEO: Which Omega-3 is Good for Children?

References:

1. Wallace A, Chinn D, Rubin G. Taking simvastatin in the morning compared with in the evening: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2003;327(7418):788
2. Turgeon RD, Althouse AD, Cohen JB, et al. Lowering Nighttime Blood Pressure With Bedtime Dosing of Antihypertensive Medications: Controversies in Hypertension – Con Side of the Argument. Hypertension. 2021;78(3):871-878.
3. Walton JC, Walker WH 2nd, Bumgarner JR, et al. Circadian Variation in Efficacy of Medications. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2021;109(6):1457-1488.
4. Montgomery, P et al. Trial. Journal of Sleep Research. August 2014; 23 (4): 364-88.
5. Yehuda, S et al. Anxiety. Nutritional Neuroscience. August 2005; 8 (4): 265-7.
6. Scorza, FA et al. Supplementation. Frontiers in Neurology. December 2013; 4: 193.
7. Ladesich, JB et al. Apnea. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. August 15, 2011; 7 (4): 391-6.
8. Jansen, E. C., Conroy, D. A., Burgess, H. J., O’Brien, L. M., Cantoral, A., Téllez-Rojo, M. M., Peterson, K. E., & Baylin, A. (2020). Plasma DHA Is Related to Sleep Timing and Duration in a Cohort of Mexican Adolescents. The Journal of nutrition, 150(3), 592–598. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxz286