Is your low carb diet starting to negatively affect your energy throughout the day? Are you having trouble getting a full night of sleep every night? Fear not, these are common road bumps that tend to come up as people begin to ease into the ketogenic diet. As your body adjusts to burning fat instead of carbohydrates for fuel, you’ll need some time to adjust to this new type of energy expenditure, and your sleep could be heavily affected at first due to a multitude of reasons. Fortunately, we’ve set up a little guide here to help you get over the hill when it comes to sleep issues on the low carb diet. Lets dive in below and get to the underlying causes of keto insomnia.
How Does the Keto Diet Affect Insomnia?
While many people that are new to the ketogenic diet report trouble sleeping, there isn’t one particular cause to pin insomnia on. A few potential culprits could be the Keto Flu, bursts of energy from burning fat, and electrolyte imbalances. Ultimately though, insomnia during ketosis has been found to be fairly temporary, and after some short term acclamation, a low carb diet can actually improve the way you sleep every night by helping you achieve deeper sleep and more energy efficient periods of rest.
From a medical standpoint, insomnia that comes when entering a state of ketosis can be attributed to low levels of serotonin and melatonin, along with higher levels of energy left over after the body converts unnecessary fat. This additional energy can make your mind race and give you a restless feeling at night, even if your body itself is physically tired.
Another potential contributing factor to sleep trouble and keto can be sugar. With reduced intake of carbohydrates and processed foods also comes a reduced intake of refined and natural sugars. If someone has a particularly sugar-dense diet before venturing into ketosis, the aftermath could result in both irritability and trouble being able to fall asleep.
Here’s how carbohydrates regulate sleep:
- When carbohydrates are processed, your brain produces large quantities of serotonin and melatonin to help you sleep.
- Carbs lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which has been found to be responsible for keeping people up at night
- Carbs slow down your body’s general processes and make it easier to mentally relax
While these all seem like good things when it comes to sleep, carbohydrates in large quantities are largely responsible malaise, fatigue, and depression as well – all things that can be kicked through the proper use of a keto diet!
Once my body began to fully adjust to the new low carb lifestyle, I found myself being able to sleep for longer periods of time, and feeling more rested each and every morning too. I also personally noticed that after a few weeks of being on a low carb diet, the more restful sleep I had each night also helped curb my cravings as well.
Next, let’s look further into why sleep is such a vital component of weight loss in the first place.
Why is Sleep Important for Weight Loss?
Sleep is incredibly important when it comes to weight loss, and without it, even the most disciplined efforts of the keto diet can be proved futile. The best way to maximizing the potential for both fat and weight loss while on a low carb diet, is by getting optimal amounts of prolonged sleep every night so that the body can efficiently use all this new energy.
There are 4 primary ways in which sleep helps promote weight loss:
1. Poor Sleep Has Been Proven to Increase Appetite and Cravings
Sleep has been found to have a strong relationship with specific hormones involved in the brain’s perception of hunger: Ghrelin and Leptin.
Ghrelin is a hormone released via the stomach that works to signal the sense of hunger in the brain. Levels of ghrelin are particularly high right before you eat, typically when the stomach is empty. After eating and once the stomach is full, these levels usually lower. Leptin on the other hand is released directly from fat cells, and works to suppress hunger signals within the brain. When you don’t get enough sleep, your brain tends to overproduce ghrelin and underproduce leptin, leading to worse cravings and an insatiable appetite.
2. Poor Sleep Can Lower Your Resting Metabolism
Your resting metabolic rate, or RMR is measured by the number of calories that your body burns while it is at complete rest. This measurement is affected by your age, weight, sex, muscle mass, and most importantly by your diet and sleep schedule. Poor amounts of sleep have been heavily linked to a slowing of one’s average RMR, which contributes to weight gain over extended periods of time.
3. Poor Sleep Is a Major Risk Factor for Weight Gain and Obesity
Poor sleep is considered to be a prominent risk factor in most cases of consistent weight gain and obesity. A recent study even found that shorter sleep durations each night can increase likelihood of obesity by as much as 89% in children and 55% in adults. Many types of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea are also worsened and caused by obesity.
4. Sleep Can Improve Physical Activity
Lack of regular sleep has been linked with daytime drowsiness and fatigue, as well as a reduced likelihood to be motivated to exercise. Conversely, those that get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep are far more likely to eat healthier, and work out more consistently, thereby reducing their risk of weight gain and obesity.
Your Body Has Too Much New Energy on Keto
Switching to a diet that’s high in fat and protein means that you’re bound to exhibit some newfound bursts of energy. While these are typically a good thing when it comes to exercise and being alert during the day, all that energy can unfortunately keep you wide awake at night too. Most of the time this energy expenditure will even out on its own within a few weeks, but one of the best ways to combat this in the early days of ketosis is to take all that energy out at the gym. We’ll get into exactly how and why the gym can help you sleep better at night below.
Stress From Fasting Can Lead to Insomnia
When you practice the keto diet technique of intermittent fasting, you’re essentially forcing your body into a mode of glucose starvation. This glucose starvation is highly effective when it comes to burning through the extra glycogen reserves in your body and speeding up its ketone production. However, glucose starvation can lead to added stress on the body while it adjusts to it, which can keep you up at night.
How Does Magnesium Affect Sleep?
When you’re low on magnesium, as is typical on a Keto diet, you can have a higher propensity for stress and anxiety. Additionally, when you’re low on magnesium you’re also more prone to muscle cramps, which can interrupt your sleep in the middle of the night.
So How do I Cure Keto Insomnia?
As we mentioned above, there is no magic cure all for keto insomnia and other symptoms of the keto flu. However, there are a few things that can help you regulate your body while it adjusts to the new low carb diet.
Stop Eating Late at Night
Even with intermittent fasting, it’s much more beneficial to finish eating for the day much earlier in the day. This allows your body to have enough time to work off any excess energy before trying to go to sleep.
Replenish Your Electrolytes
Making sure you get enough electrolytes is vitally important for every kind of diet, especially the Keto diet. The best way to keep them replenished is through Magnesium supplements. Magnesium Glycinate Supplements are very effective at reducing insomnia, improving sleep quality, and acting as a natural muscle relaxer to help with cramps that may occur in the middle of the night.
Eat Your Carbs Later in the Day
While the Keto diet does require a limited carbohydrate intake, the carbs that you do consume are much more effective later in the day, as they can help increase serotonin production and get you to sleep faster.
Limit Your Caffeine Intake
The ultimate perpetrator of insomnia is too much caffeine. Many people find that caffeine is a good craving inhibitor when they’re really hankering for carbs, but this can backfire and end up keeping you up at night. Capping your caffeine intake to just the early morning is much better than taking it in the afternoon, but replacing it entirely is the most effective.
One of the best, and most cost effective coffee replacements is green or herbal tea, which still has some caffeine, but a negligible amount compared to coffee and energy drinks.
Consider Melatonin
Melatonin is a natural hormone that’s produced by your body. When you’re having trouble sleeping, taking melatonin supplements can be extremely helpful when it comes to getting more restful, thorough nights of sleep.
Melatonin starts to naturally rise in your body when it gets dark outside, signaling to your brain to get ready for rest. When you take additional melatonin supplements, your body has an easier time getting ready to sleep. I’m particularly fond of Pure Encapsulations Melatonin on Amazon.
In addition to supplements, limiting your exposure to blue light from cell phones and computer screens can help your body produce natural melatonin and ease into a relaxed state for sleeping.
