I’ve seen that insomnia is a common complaint for those that are new to this WOE. I have been eating very low carb, basically carnivore, since August of last year. My biggest issue is my sleep. I have constant night time awakenings. Falling asleep is not an issue. I go to bed around 9PM but find myself consistently waking up around 2am (sometimes earlier) and then from then on out its like I don’t enter a deep sleep state for the rest of the night. I will say that I have not been consistently keto for more than 2-3 weeks at a time. One day on the weekend I’ll have some carbs at night, but then go back to very low carb for another couple weeks. I should mention that I do take magnesium, I do watch electrolytes, I have great sleep habits (routine, avoiding light at night, cold temp, etc etc). Any thoughts or experiences with this would be great!
Issues with sleep - multiple nighttime awakenings
I don’t have an answer to this but am going to follow as this has been my experience for a while, preketo too. I don’t know how old you are but it seems like this common for a lot of us in middle age.
Im in the same boat, no problem falling asleep but tend to wake up anywhere between 3-4am and have a really hard time going back to sleep. I’ve been keto for 2.5 years, am 52yo female going through menopause. Ive heard before that when you are keto, you don’t need as much sleep as when eating the SAD diet. I’ve been trying different things as well to help improve sleep but to no avail.
I’ve had the same problem, middle-age insomnia, worsened by keto, until I started taking 10mg CBD oil twice a day. Nothing else came close to helping.
Same here. I am only 14 days into this WOE but, was under the impression that the insomnia would fade as I become fat adapted. After reading this thread I am not so sure that is the case.
My sleep has been terrible since night one & only gotten worse. I went from waking up around midnight & 3a to waking up every hour & a half followed by 45+ minutes to fall back asleep. Although it is extremely annoying, it didn’t affect my energy level throughout the day.
I reached my breaking point around day 9 & took Tylenol PM two nights in a row. Even still, I woke at least once between 1:30a & 3a. Currently, without a sleep aid, I am waking up once a night, which is a slight improvement I suppose.
Looking forward to my first night of uninterrupted sleep.
I’m also exactly the same, been on keto since September 2018. I’ve been taking melatonin with my regular meds but no effect. I’m exhausted most of the time and fall asleep if I sit down to watch tv. Any advice please.
Same issue here. I can fall asleep (between 9 - 9:30 pm) but I can’t stay asleep. I am up sometimes as early as 2:30 am. I never eat past 7 pm! I don’t drink any caffeine and I seem to follow everything on that sheet above. But my insomnia is getting worse.
Again my problem is if I wake up for ANY reason during the night, I cannot go back to sleep. I think the only reason I am surviving is because I don’t eat any carbs but now its to the point where I am seeing my blood glucose levels rise and I can feel the cortisol shots to keep me going.
Interesting thread. I sometimes have the same problem… I’ll sleep well for maybe 5 hours and then am awake. Sometimes, I can go back to sleep pretty easily, other times, not so much. I do sometimes get up to pee, not because I really have to go that bad but because I’m already awake.
I tried using some Calm (magnesium supplement) before bed. It maybe helped just a little but didn’t have that much effect on the sleep as I’d hoped maybe it would. I seldom have any trouble going to sleep. It’s just that I wake up around the 5 hour mark. Doesn’t happen every night or at exactly the same time.
I do usually end up going back to sleep. Sometimes it takes a little longer than others. And I’ll sleep another 2 to 3 hours. So I’m getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. And most days, I feel just fine during the day, no problems getting sleepy during normal daylight hours. So I guess I’m getting what I need.
But I can definitely relate to the waking up in the night thing. Don’t have an answer. Whoever has the same thing going on, you’re not alone! Maybe some adjust to it better than others or go back to sleep better than others.
Sorry I don’t have any suggestions. Would offer them if I did. Good luck! (And sweet dreams!) 
Are you drinking any alcohol? Even a glass with dinner can disrupt sleep. I would wake at 3am nightly when I included wine with dinner.
I have the exact same issue, only i rather enjoy it lol. I have to wake up at 3 a.m. in order to be to work at 4 a.m. i was a chronic over sleeper! But now i am up well before my alarm, so i consider this a victory 
Now as far as weekends are concerned, well, hmmm, yea…it kind of stinks on the weekends, and im sure summer break will be just as bad, but i will deal with that then. So, i guess if it isn’t bothering you during the day, it may just be the new norm. Good luck!!
No I’m not. Don’t really drink that much. I’ve always had sleep issues, mainly falling asleep (which isn’t normally the issue) though. Maybe I just need more time to adapt. I’m not really sure haha but honestly not sleeping well is a huge stressor for me so I’m starting to also wonder if I should just give up on keto and go back to lowcarb. Who knows, I just want to sleep well lol 
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Some days it isn’t a big deal for me either but I have always been a great sleeper and like Becky, I had been a chronic over sleeper. So at first it was a win, but like Becky, I am up at 4:30 am so it sucks when you wake up at 2 am and are unable to go back to sleep for another couple of hours. I honestly can’t get my bedtime any earlier.
I learned early on to cut out alcohol, well during the week. I do enjoy a glass of wine of the weekends. It so far doesn’t disrupt my sleep, but I just don’t sleep as restfully and since I have to get up super early on weekdays, that was easy to give up.
I think its a hormonal issue but I can’t figure out what when everything else seems to be aligning up so well. I keep track of this thread to come up with some ideas.
A lot of people find that sleep improves dramatically on keto - in fact it’s probably one of the top NSVs - but the folks who will comment on this thread are the ones for whom it doesn’t.
In the beginning, I think that the shift in energy source (from sugar to fat) is a huge change for all systems of the body, and there’s probably a change in cortisol and adrenal levels until you adjust. If you’re still struggling with sleep once you’re fully adapted - a few months in - it might be worth it to experiment with just a tiny bit of carb cycling. I don’t follow Leann Vogel but I’ve gathered that she does this and it works really well for her and for some others.
@Bigman When I was in the worst phase with my sleep (it’s much better now), I was waking like you and I absolutely hated it. What helped me a lot was setting up some headphones and a device (on airplane mode, with a dark screen) near my bed with a few meditation tracks lined up. I figured that if I was going to be awake I would at least do some good breathing work. This shifted my feeling about the waking up: instead of being a problem, it became my chance to finally do some breathing and meditation. My annoyance and anxiety about the wakings pretty much disappeared, and every time I woke up it was just “oh, it’s time for my meditation.”
Fingers crossed that everything levels out sooner rather than later. I have briefly skimmed a few topics about carb cycling & haphazardly gave it a shot shortly after my original response to this thread. I’ve yet to be bumped out of ketosis so, I am not certain I did it right.
One thing I did notice on those few days though, was increased weight loss.
I have also tried Magnesium & a few other tips from the pros, which also haven’t helped. In the meantime, I am taking sleeping pills. Usually one day on, one day off. On the off days, my sleep is still extremely unsatisfying.
Thanks for the advice. I suppose I am just going to have to wait this out & let my body properly adjust.
Christy, there’s something really powerful about becoming fully fat-adapted before playing around with carb cycling so I would hold off on that.
@Bigman - my reply three posts above was for you! I edited to tag you but I’m not sure if that works after the initial post
Thanks for the post! Yeah that’s not a bad idea. I’ll look into meditation for when I wake up. I definitely have negative feelings about it so hopefully I can switch my feelings to be more positive like you did so that it’s not as big of a stressor.
I was having an issue, but then started eating one small serving of the cookie dough fat bomb (recipe on this site) and taking magnesium before bed. Not a problem since. Even is I do occasionally get up to pee, I go right back to sleep.