Insomnia Methods, I've tried them all!

#1

So, I’ve been in and out of Keto probably for the last 8 months. The ‘Out’ part occurs because once I can tell I’m firmly in Ketosis, my ability to sleep declines drastically. I eventually break and eat carbs out of sheer insomnia exhaustion. I’ve been in Keto for the last almost-month and it’s the same: I cannot sleep. Here’s a list of what I’ve tried:

  1. Magnesium, Potassium, L-tryptophan supplements before bed.
  2. Niacin.
  3. Exercise
  4. Ramping up the greens I eat to the maximum macros.
  5. Increasing Mag, potassium, salt, water.
  6. Increasing fat.
  7. Increasing overall calories.
  8. Increasing protein.
  9. Blue-light blocker glasses for screen-time.
  10. Eliminating caffiene
  11. More sunlight during the day
  12. Eliminating all dairy

So far, no success. Some nights I get a few hours sleep more than most which helps me to sludge through, but for the most part it’s averaging around four or five hours per night. I can tell my cortisol is high when I am sleep deprived because I just want to eat anything.

I’m not eating at a caloric deficit primarily for this reason; the cortisol drives me to want to eat, even if I feel the hunger satiating ketones. It’s weird. I’m at a healthy weight, although I would like to lose the last 30 lbs I’ve been carrying for the last 3 years. But I keep plugging at Keto because the benefits have been life-changing. Here’s the benefits list!

  1. Energy. Yes, we all know this one.
  2. Sinuses have cleared up! For someone who used to take an allergy pill almost _every single day_emphasized text__and STILL suffer from chronic nose-blowing and routine sinus-infections…this is nothing short of miraculous.
  3. Acne is suddenly gone. Like, I’m in my 40s and have had acne my whole life. Now? Nothing.
  4. I’ve saved the best for last. Debilitating depression/anxiety is greatly, greatly lessened. Again, let me emphasize the miraculous aspect. I’ve stopped taking any anti-depressants two weeks ago and it’s fine. Like so so fine. I’m not dancing on rainbows, but I’m not also hoping the semi will swerve across the yellow lines and take me out. I couldn’t have even believed this was possible before.

Which is why I’m so reluctant to get off Keto, even with the rough sleep issues. I’ve watched several youtube videos on the topic and suggestions are mostly encompassed in the list of ‘tried it’ above. My last vain hope is that my body just needs time to reach homeostasis, and staying on Keto will eventually right the ship. I have melasma on my face, which means something hormone-wise is off-kilter, but doctors have zero idea how to fix this, or what might be wrong.

If anyone read all this and has any other ideas, I’d LOVE to hear them! No one’s body can completely heal from inflammation without proper sleep; there must be a fix…

(Sophie) #2

Melatonin always worked pretty well for me. I recommended it to a friend and she was happy with it too…especially when there is something she wants to watch on TV …she gives one to her hubby! :dizzy_face::laughing:

#3

Lol at your friend. I’ve tried melatonin years ago (wasn’t very successful for me) but not since starting Keto. Maybe I’ll give it another try. Thanks for the suggestion!!

(Sophie) #4

Not sure of your age but meno causes sleep issues too.

#5

I’m 41 so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. The only reason I would say ‘maybe not yet’ is I’ve battled insomnia my whole life—Keto has just ramped it up on steroids for some reason…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Might try allowing more time between finishing eating and bedtime. And stay off the screen for several hours before bedtime!

FWIW, there has been sleep studies done in which a lot of people who think they didn’t sleep a wink were actually deeply asleep most of the night. Interestingly, some of the subjects who thought they were sound asleep all night actually weren’t. How’s that for messing with our heads?!

(Jan) #7

My sister added grapeseed oil to her diet and it helped her with insomnia. Her doctor prescribed Ambien, but she was afraid to take it after reading up on the side effects.

#8

I will definitely try the longer duration between screentime/eating and bedtime. Anything is worth a shot!

I had a sleep doctor tell me something similar once when I went in to see him about my insomnia. Trust, if you’re so exhausted you can barely function, having a doctor imply perhaps you’re sleeping great and you just don’t know it…kind of makes you lose faith in doctors. I’m sure the study has validity, but I’m relatively sure it’s not applicable in my scenario.

But thank you for the suggestions and taking the time to read and reply. I will for sure try your ideas.

#9

I will try this! Thanks much for the reply and I’ll see how it goes. :slight_smile:

(Aedan Kiernan) #10

It might sound like a odd tip, but have you through about meditation before you try to sleep ? I use a app called headspace for my meditations, and i always sleep so well after I do one, and feel so relaxed.

(Diane) #11

I can really sympathize, I’ve suffered from insomnia for decades. At its worst, I would fall asleep at 4 or 5 am only to get up at 7 to get ready for work. Sleep deprivation can make you very crazy very quickly. I found solutions that worked somewhat (absolutely NO caffeine, ambien, and treatment for my PCOS which caused me to produce way too much estrogen). With those changes I could get about 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night (I slept a bit better on weekends).

I found that eating ketogenically and extended fasting exacerbated my insomnia again. Right now I’m taking 3 grams of glycine (an amino acid), 500 mg of magnesium glycinate, 2.2 grams of ginger (it seems to help reduce cortisol), and 1 to 3 capsules of an herbal supplement called Myosedate (melatonin didn’t work for me either). I take these about 1/2 to 1 hour before bedtime. I fall asleep easily and naturally. I also use a feature on my phone to change the brightness and color of the lighting on the screen after sundown (it gives the screen a yellow cast).

I do wake up after about 4 hrs and stay awake anywhere from 1/2 to 1 1/2 hours, before falling back asleep again. I also seem to do well on a little less sleep with the keto diet than I have in the past.

My sleep has improved enough that I occasionally fall asleep before I take any of these supplements! If that happens, I take them when I wake up in the night and I fall back asleep very quickly. My most recent “tweak”’is that I’m now only taking 1 capsule of the Myosedate and when I run out, I’m going to see how I do without it.

These are the supplements I’m using.

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FYI, I do like to meditate, but I usually do this in the morning, not sure if it helps with my ability to sleep.

Good luck!

(karen) #12

I find that lowering the temperature in my bedroom helps a lot. If it’s part mental, a weighted blanket is something that people use, I haven’t but when I imagine it, it seems really soothing to me. I take 7 mg of pure melatonin powder (on the tiniest measuring spoon you can imagine, 7 mg is about the size of a grain of salt) under my tongue. (I didn’t want the xylitol in the instant release kind and the regular pills didn’t seem to kick in at all, this works for me.) And I lie there and breathe in and out, saying keep calm, keto on like a mantra. Still not sleeping great, but it’s better.

#13

I love headspace. Haven’t tried it for sleep, but it’s great anyway.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #14

Point taken. Sorry my remark didn’t hit the way I intended. I thought it might be comforting, not come across like criticism. I’m sure you’ve received enough of that to last you!

Anyway, good luck fixing this. Please do let us know how you make out, good or bad.

(Charlotte) #15

I’ve struggled with insomnia since childhood, so I might be able to help. What happens when you try to sleep? Is it primarily your brain keeping you up or your body (i.e. is your mind full of thoughts you can’t turn off, or is it more a feeling of physical restlessness)?

For excessive thinking, I recommend a daily practice of meditation–an hour before bed, start turning down lights, shut off all screens, put on soothing music if that helps calm you down, diffuse some relaxing essential oils. If you can set up a little corner in your bedroom for meditation that’s ideal, but any dimly lit, calm space will do. Use a meditation app if it helps, focus on deep breath work, empty your mind, all that good stuff. Close your eyes or light a single candle in an otherwise darkened room and focus on that with soft, relaxed eyes. If you struggle with meditation, all the more reason to do it–like keto, it takes time to adapt to it and to see the benefits, but if you stick with it, it can do WONDERS for anxiety, and for quieting the mind.

Then leave a notebook next to your bed. If there is something you can’t stop thinking about that you are worried you’ll forget in the morning, write it down, then let it go. If you find yourself stressing about things, focus on your breathing, work on keeping your mind empty.

A guided meditation while lying in bed can also help a lot, both for physical and mental restlessness, especially one that focuses on slowly relaxing each individual muscle group. Also extremely helpful while lying in bed, for quieting the mind as well as the body, are binaural beats (do some research on them–I have found listening to them EXTREMELY helpful).

If you’re just feeling physically restless and none of the meditative stuff works, you may just need more exercise–if your body isn’t getting enough, it can be fitful. I find swimming (for whatever reason) to be the most effective for helping me sleep deeply. Just don’t exercise too close to bed or it can have the opposite effect.

I know you said you’ve cut out dairy, but I’ve actually found dairy to be soothing and to help my sleep. Peanut butter too. But that could just be a placebo effect, I have no idea.

Even with all of this, I sometimes have sleepless or low-sleep nights, but these techniques do help a lot. I hope one or two of them may be helpful for you–insomnia really sucks and makes everything more difficult.

Best of luck!

(Shayne) #16

I have to keep my room cold and DARK and I wear an eye mask. I use a white noise machine and two fans. Dimmer switches in my overhead lights and in the master bathroom. I have all of my devices set to shift color as the sun goes down (as someone mentioned above). No device usage in my room. And a pair of orange goggles to block the blue light that I wear if I feel a little too wound up in the evening.

Supplements that I have used successfully for sleep - everyone has mentioned magnesium, so I won’t beat a dead horse - valerian root, 5HTP (careful of the dreams, though), and GABA. Every night I drink a cup of chamomile tea that I add a dose of inositol powder. The inositol is good for anxiety and it has a slightly sweet taste but not enough to make the tea actually sweet.

When my brain just won’t shut up, I use the same method I used to soothe my crying baby and just keep saying SHHHHHH SHHH SHHH out loud to myself. I also sleep alone, so nobody is there to judge me.

The head of my bed is raised, I have five pillows (two under my head because I’m a side sleeper, one between my legs, and a body pillow on each side of me trying to keep me on my side!), and I snuggle with a big ol’ stuffed animal.

All of that and I can get between 6 and 7 hours a night during the week. The quality of my sleep is better since I got a CPAP machine.

(Dee) #17

I started meditation this year as I was having major issues falling asleep. It is very helpful so far. At night, I usually fall asleep during meditation.

#18

Some folks use ASMR videos help them to fall asleep. I find some of them relaxing, but it’s never quite clear to me whether folks listening to ASMR videos/podcasts keep their headphones on while sleeping or manage to somehow remove them just prior to falling asleep.

(mole person) #19

I also have noticed increased insomnia since going keto and IF. I agree with Paul. I find extending the time between my last bite of food and when I go to sleep makes a big difference. I also find that helps to spend the last hour before I go to sleep in bed either watching a show with the lights low, or reading ( but no internet). Finally, I’ve stopped having caffeine after 4 p.m. in the afternoon. If I’m faithful about those three things I usually sleep very well. Good luck, I hope this helps.

#20

I’m going to try it, so many here have suggested meditation. Thank you!