My sleep has not been OK for a while.
I can fall asleep OK now thanks to blue-blocking glasses, but I do tend to wake up 2:30am and my sleep is poor and patchy after that.
Somewhere I read that Keto does not encourage serotonin and thats not the best for sleep.
Anyone found a good help to deep, long sleep? (e.g. Magnesium, Tryptophan? )
I’ve tried Melotonin, anti-histamine etc. I have to take a huge amount of Melotonin for it to work.
Here is a link to another sleep related post and a video about sleep first getting worse and then getting better…
I’ve totally cut out coffee and my sleep duration has started to improve. However I need a few weeks to make sure the trend is solid. I’ve been keto for 581 days.
Also when I fast my sleep is always shorter but I feel rested.
I use ‘Calm’ Magnesium at night, my sleep started improving almost immediately and now I have a more difficult time going to sleep if I don’t have it. So I even figure out how to take it with me backpacking. And now the brand also has a version that includes melotonin, yet since you mentioned it takes more of that, this version might not be worth the extra cost.
I’ve been waking with a headache every morning for the past few weeks. PCP is scheduling a sleep study. Maybe are you having some sleep apnea type issue?
I started taking magnesium a couple of nights ago and I do feel more calm, so thats had a good effect.
But Melotonin: I’d have to take enough to stop a horse for it to affect me.
I just went online and bought some tangerine flavored calm magnesium. Can’t wait to try this remedy. Insomnia is such a issue with me as well. Fingers crossed. Thanks @Paendora
You are welcome, Ellen. I hope it works for you! Had a colleague in my office just a bit ago who also confirmed that the nightly magnesium is now a consistent part of her nighttime regime.
Magnesium, from what I understand, can be an important supplement for those in ketosis as the body tends to dump Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium, and one could probably benefit from supplementing all three. My PCP prescribes a strong potassium, and I do the other two on my own. Missing any of the three really throws off my electrolyte balance.
I struggled with sleep for years. I don’t know how long you have been on Keto but I had insomnia for about a month into it. After that I have slept like a rock from 10pm-6am like clockwork.
I found taking GABA before bed stopped the night waking and improved my mood
GABA is in that new version of Calm Magnesium as well! Now I know why!
Are you B12 deficient?
B12 is required to produce melatonin.
Another possibility is long term supplementation with Vitamin D. Too much Vitamin D from supplements can inhibit sleep.
I have mixed feelings about blue blocker glasses. When I wear them at night, they cause me to fall asleep (as in, not be able to keep my eyes open) around 9pm. But I wake up early, at 4:45am or 5am. If I don’t use them, I can stay up later, but then I also get up later.
So, I started using them again a few months ago, but then have quit using them due to this effect. For me, with preteen kids, I’d like to talk to my wife, and the time we have to talk/be together is around 8:45pm or later. If I’m falling asleep at 9pm, that’s not a great conversation.
I’ve used Mg at night, with some success, but I can’t tell about Mg. I often feel that adding more salt to my diet helps keep me away from things like leg kicks or leg cramps, than does Mg. I also find that Mg can for me cause too slow of a heartbeat (I’m on both beta blockers and an ACE inhibitor, so my heart rate is low anyway).
I also fall asleep within maybe at the most 5 minutes on a typical night. So, I’m not your average person. I do get up typically 2+ times per night, potentially due to the diuretic effect of beta blockers, which I take before bed.
I drink about 8oz of Mg water (homemade) in the morning to help me 
I take a beta-blocker and ACE inhibitor and my heart rate is about 55 bps rested. On keto I no longer have problems kick-starting my heart when starting to exercise or climbing stairs.
I fall asleep in 5 mins as well. But duration has been a problem. Recently gave up coffee (zilch) and sleep duration is improving. I’m up 2 to 3 times to pee also.
It’s not a theory. I don’t have opinions or beliefs like others like to assume about me.
Calcitriol (active Vitamin D) inhibits the prostaglandin pathway. Prostaglandins are required for many beneficial biological effects. They increase cranial size by increasing neurotrophins, drive the inflammatory response, induce deep sleep via PGD2… Especially by knocking out the body when it’s overworked, increase sexual organ size in both sexes, etc…
This is partly why those in northern hemispheres have bigger brains. Less Vitamin D equates to a larger brain but a larger brain isn’t efficient without sufficient non oxidized polyunsaturated fat.
https://www.google.com/search?q=calcitriol+inhibit+prostaglandin
Only issue: I’ve been taking Vitamin D drops since, well, forever. Don’t have any issues sleeping.
Interesting. I’m not willing to give up coffee, as of yet. I also still sleep fairly well (except when fasting >24 hours, where I normally sleep less, though oddly don’t feel bad; cortisol?). Last night, I went to bed around 10pm and got up around 5:45am. But it’s different every day.
It also depends on what podcast I listen to. Some of those people are so anti-blue light, they tell you to get rid of your LED light bulbs. So, if I listen to a podcast like this, I’ll get back out my blue blocking glasses. But if there’s a benefit to those, for me, it’s not a huge one. It might not even be quantifiable. They might even be detrimental.
Too much melatonin will give headaches the next morning. I don’t know how much your Calm has. If I used 2mg of melatonin, I’ll get the headache too the next morning, kind of like a hangover. So cutting it back to 1mg helps sometimes. Then sometimes I’d still get the headache so stopped using it.
I often use Calm by itself (no melatonin).
I take Magnesium Citrate and vitamin D3 daily. As long as I get some exercise (right now every other day) I fall asleep within a minute and wake each morning without an alarm. I get anywhere from 6 to 7 hours. I drink coffee like a banshee from 6 am til 9:30 am and stop. I brew 10 cups at the house and my wife drinks one cup. As soon as I get to the office I brew a fill a large Yeti cup but it doesn’t seem to have any adverse effects. Now if I cut out my morning workouts at 4:30 am the insomnia returns and I end up reading keto books at 2:30 am.