Keto & Sleeping

(Dan) #1

So, I have been on Keto for a month or so. I am loving it, doing great, making progress. My issue is, I go to sleep, fall asleep quickly but wake up about 5-6 hours later and unable to fall back asleep. I feel great all day, no energy issues. Just concerned I am not getting enough sleep. In comparison pre keto I was sleeping 8-9 hours a night but I would wake up feeling tired and not rested. So, I am getting less sleep but feeling rested. Is the less sleep normal? Does it get better farther along into keto?

(mole person) #2

It’s perfectly normal. It didn’t change much for me. I’m still only sleeping about 6 hrs on average and I feel great after two years of this.

#3

that’s been me too, for over a year. I feel ok during the day though, whereas in the past I would feel like I just couldn’t function if I didn’t get “enough” sleep. I do still depend on coffee, for the extra wake-up… AND, when I do wake up in the middle of the night, I just try to continue resting because I think we do still benefit from the rest. So I will just lay there and if I fall back asleep, great… if not, I just ….rest. Sometimes I do sleep straight through about 7 hours but that’s not often.

(*Tame Those Ghrelin Gremlins) #4

I wish I could sleep a solid 6 hours. I sleep about 5 on average and it’s with two wake ups to go potty. So I get about 1 1/2 2 hours at a time go back to sleep then wake again and usually at the same exact times.

I was hoping Keto would fix my sleep pattern but a little over 3 months in and it’s still crap. I don’t feel as bad as I did pre keto which is good I suppose.

(Khara) #5

I’ve been reading Dr Bosworth. She says “During ketosis, the quality of the fat lining your mental circuits improves, as does the depth and quality of your sleep. A swollen brain (caused by high amounts of glucose attracting water) is easily fatigued, yet does not sleep well. The longer your brain is exposed to higher ketones and lower blood sugars, the better you sleep.”

So to me this means on a SAD diet we can get 8-9 hours of sleep and still not feel rested like when on Keto and getting just 6-7 hours. It’s more about quality than time. I’m looking forward to this. I’ve been back to keto a month now. I feel great but I am still needing extra sleep, 8-9 hours every night. Hopefully the quality will improve.

Interestingly though, this makes me think of the sleep studies I’ve seen where they test a group of people by reducing their normal sleep time by just one hour and by the end of one week they are functioning mentally at the level of when they stayed up for 24 hours straight. Take away 2 hours and they get knocked down to a 48 hour no sleep level within just a few days. It’s interesting and does demonstrate how important sleep is but as with all of our medical tests and markers these days… they are based on carb eaters.

(Dan) #6

Thanks everyone, good to know it’s not just me. I will keep plugging away then.

#7

I still enjoy sleeping, but have a tendency to wake up early and go back to sleep again.

The quality of sleep is very important. A caffeine abuser will often sleep well through the night, but doesn’t get enough deep sleep. On keto, it’s fully possibly that we get more deep sleep than on sad.

Another point is that you get nore deep sleep early in the night, at the start of your natural sleep time. If you wake up early, you lose some rem sleep, but that has a different function.

(Splotchy) #8

I found that when I first started 2-3 day fasts I slept badly. Plus at beginning of going LCHF would sometimes wake in the night and not get back to sleep. Prior to that I could sleep like the dead.

However it all resolved after a few months. I guess I adapted as I sleep easily and deeply now.

(traci simpson) #9

I would kill for solid 4-5 hours of deep sleep nightly.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #10

Roughly 3 months keto. My sleep is usually abysmal anyway. Keto hasn’t changed the quality of my sleep much. One thing I do notice is I wake up a hell of a lot earlier than Id prefer, on days Id like to sleep-in. Was hoping it’d help more, but I’m just about as tired as always. Maybe it’ll take more time for me. I spent a few years with an insomia problem, so maybe I’m a bad example to begin with.