As I describe in https://github.com/haskell/deepseq/issues/17 it is possible to implement an NFData instance for any Foldable type, and we can offer a function to help do that: data Unit = Unit instance Monoid Unit where mempty = Unit Unit `mappend` Unit = Unit -- strict in both arguments, unlike () rnfFoldable :: (Foldable f, NFData a) => f a -> () rnfFoldable xs = foldMap (\x -> rnf x `seq` Unit) xs `seq` () This could be used like so: instance NFData a => NFData (F a) where rnf = rnfFoldable This version forces from left to right. It would be possible to offer another version that forces from right to left: data Unit2 = Unit2 instance Monoid Unit2 where mempty = Unit2 x `mappend` Unit2 = x `seq` Unit2 rnfFoldableRTL :: (Foldable f, NFData a) => f a -> () rnfFoldableRTL xs = foldMap (\x -> rnf x `seq` Unit2) xs `seq` ()