Low Carb Diet and Insomnia?

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:33 am

I have to post this because of the experience I had before, during and after eating a very low carb diet. I never have had a problem going to sleep and when I wake up to pee or whatever in the middle of the night I usually fall right back asleep without much of an issue. However, when I was eating a very low carb diet, I would fall asleep, wake up to pee, and then be awake for literally hours and hours, and not be able to fall back asleep. This happened pretty much every night, and I was getting maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep most nights. As soon as I switched back to eating carbs, it is not a problem anymore.

So I have to ask the question because I am curious, and I don't think this can be a coincidence...

Can lack of carbs in your diet cause insomnia or difficulty going to or staying asleep? Because it certainly seems to have done this in my case...

pcallaghan · Post by **pcallaghan** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:15 pm

Curious but what is your fat intake while you are low-carb? By low-carb are you following a Paleo-like diet or simply dropping all carbs (including veggies and fruits).

I've found when I went "low-carb", which in my way was dropping grains and most sugars that I slept better. But my fat intake increased.

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:26 pm

pcallaghan wrote:Curious but what is your fat intake while you are low-carb? By low-carb are you following a Paleo-like diet or simply dropping all carbs (including veggies and fruits).

I've found when I went "low-carb", which in my way was dropping grains and most sugars that I slept better. But my fat intake increased.

I was doing a cycle where I went low carb/low fat for 3 days followed by low carb/high fat for 3 days...

bigpelo · Post by **bigpelo** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:44 pm

I red an article about that not long ago. I searched it quickly but didn't found it back...

Anyway, from what I can remember, sleep pattern is closely link with insulin level changes. When blood sugar level is low, so is insulin. There is threshold where the low insulin level triggers the body to thinks it need to eat like now. So you wake up and won't fall back to sleep until you rise insulin somehow. Eating a handful of nuts or seeds seems to be the best option to have carbs without spiking insulin to much. That's what the study says.

Personal experience: I prefer to cycle days of high carbs with days of high fat instead of pur low carb diet but I try not to go over 40% calories from carbs even within days of high carb/low fat. I also have problem falling asleep or getting back to sleep if woke up during the night and that was the case before I started playing with carb in my diet. I tried the handful of almonds beside the bed if I woke up but it didn't works. My problems are probably stress related. Adaptogen N helps with falling asleep though but not with staying down. Having a 6 months baby with growing teeth pain is surely not helping my case these days.

One more thing, my father and his are type II diabetic. I know that carbs are making me fat quick and that I feel better when I eat fewer carbs that most people. My dad also complains about his sleep pattern.

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:04 pm

bigpelo wrote:I red an article about that not long ago. I searched it quickly but didn't found it back...

Anyway, from what I can remember, sleep pattern is closely link with insulin level changes. When blood sugar level is low, so is insulin. There is threshold where the low insulin level triggers the body to thinks it need to eat like now. So you wake up and won't fall back to sleep until you rise insulin somehow. Eating a handful of nuts or seeds seems to be the best option to have carbs without spiking insulin to much. That's what the study says.

Personal experience: I prefer to cycle days of high carbs with days of high fat instead of pur low carb diet but I try not to go over 40% calories from carbs even within days of high carb/low fat. I also have problem falling asleep or getting back to sleep if woke up during the night and that was the case before I started playing with carb in my diet. I tried the handful of almonds beside the bed if I woke up but it didn't works. My problems are probably stress related. Adaptogen N helps with falling asleep though but not with staying down. Having a 6 months baby with growing teeth pain is surely not helping my case these days.

One more thing, my father and his are type II diabetic. I know that carbs are making me fat quick and that I feel better when I eat fewer carbs that most people. My dad also complains about his sleep pattern.

I am becoming a big believer in eating for your body type...what is your body type? Ecto's do well with high carbs, endo's do better with higher protein and no more than 40% carbs and meso's can do whatever the heck they want...

Jacos5 · Post by **Jacos5** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:09 pm

Definitely not an ecto, and I've had more success keeping carbs as low as I can to be honest. I'd say I'm an endo. I've always felt that body type had some validity to it as well.

bigpelo · Post by **bigpelo** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:41 pm

matter2003 wrote: I am becoming a big believer in eating for your body type...what is your body type? Ecto's do well with high carbs, endo's do better with higher protein and no more than 40% carbs and meso's can do whatever the heck they want...

I am an Endo/meso, probably around 6/3/1

I actually do pretty well with a 40-30-30 macros %, 40 being fat!

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:49 pm

bigpelo wrote:
matter2003 wrote: I am becoming a big believer in eating for your body type...what is your body type? Ecto's do well with high carbs, endo's do better with higher protein and no more than 40% carbs and meso's can do whatever the heck they want...
I am an Endo/meso, probably around 6/3/1

I actually do pretty well with a 40-30-30 macros %, 40 being fat!

We are probably very similar body type wise...endo's definitely handle fat pretty well...if I notice any extra fat creeping in I will dial back my carbs and replace it with fat...

beefcake66 · Post by **beefcake66** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:40 am

I'm the same general bodytype as the rest of you guys, but I've been handling some carbs pretty well...

Mind you I'm eating less than 2000 calories a day because I'm little, but up to 300g a day no problems... I sleep like a baby... But I'm definitely not losing any weight (I think I'm gaining).

Last night I hit my 2000 calories and then... kept eating. A lot of fat and a fair bit of sugars (maple roasted peanuts... couldnt resist...)... Surprisingly I dropped a pound overnight (weds morning to thurs morning). Donotunderstand.

EDIT: We should make a bodytype thread and discuss what works for us and maybe work out a system based on bodytypes to aid Rob

There's a lot of Ecto's here and also lots of Endo/Meso on the go! And the way you train/diet with both can be 100% different....

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:57 am

beefcake66 wrote:I'm the same general bodytype as the rest of you guys, but I've been handling some carbs pretty well...

Mind you I'm eating less than 2000 calories a day because I'm little, but up to 300g a day no problems... I sleep like a baby... But I'm definitely not losing any weight (I think I'm gaining).

Last night I hit my 2000 calories and then... kept eating. A lot of fat and a fair bit of sugars (maple roasted peanuts... couldnt resist...)... Surprisingly I dropped a pound overnight (weds morning to thurs morning). Donotunderstand.

EDIT: We should make a bodytype thread and discuss what works for us and maybe work out a system based on bodytypes to aid Rob There's a lot of Ecto's here and also lots of Endo/Meso on the go! And the way you train/diet with both can be 100% different....

Endo and endo/meso generally do well on no more than 40% carbs, while ecto generally do well on 60-65% carbs. Ecto/meso probably a little less carbs, maybe 50-55%. Trye meso's can eat whatever the hell they want and it makes little difference...

beefcake66 · Post by **beefcake66** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:21 pm

I could be a meso with a serious appetite problem then. I'm predisposed to holdin my BF% around 30% though. (mind you, I'm a woman)

matter2003 · Post by **matter2003** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:06 pm

beefcake66 wrote:I could be a meso with a serious appetite problem then. I'm predisposed to holdin my BF% around 30% though. (mind you, I'm a woman)

Meso's can do whatever they want basically and it works...you sound like an endo or endo/meso like me...

beefcake66 · Post by **beefcake66** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:54 pm

Which is what I was saying - just that carbs dont kill me as bad as I thought, so far. Been stickin around 50-65% carbs on average with a ever so slightly below maintenance diet (like, -50cals... but I cheat a lot. so def above)... I'd say I'm doin pretty well.

I think my original point was lost so I'm just gonna go now lol

Jacos5 · Post by **Jacos5** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:08 pm

Sometimes a persons maitnance isn't always necessarily their real maitnance. One simple variable to consider is how much work you're putting into your workouts. Some people over or under estimate the amount of work they're putting in and this could obviously reduce or raise your maitnance. That's pretty much why there are 100 different ways of calculating this. Katch-McArdle seems to work well for me. I can't think of another reason as to why you'd be loosing weight if you're under eating though.