It is very common that sleep ends up being shorter, fragmented, and generally poor after the first full fasting day. This is a tough one, and for some can be more challenging than the fast itself. That is, hunger doesn’t seem to be the issue, but rather accumulated fatigue.
The overriding consensus here is that when you are in a deep fasted state your stress and cortisol levels are slightly elevated (fight or flight). Your body wants you to be active so that you can hunt for food. I have noticed my pulse at 5-10 bpm higher than normal.
That being said, not everybody responds the same way. Some people report having very restful sleep, others not. Try fasting to see how your body responds, , and then experiment to see what works best for you. I am still experimenting and haven’t completely cracked the code on sleep just yet but have seen improvements with the below..
Sleep trends you could experience
These are anecdotal trends from myself and many others I’ve coached through fasting. Everyone is different!
- Sleep on Day 0 going into Day 1 should be mostly normal. You ate during the day and had dinner that evening, it was just an earlier low-carb meal.
- Sleep on Day 1 to Day 2/3+ may be shorter and more restless. You may have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, toss-and-turn more, or you may wake up very early. Your body likely has more cortisol (stress hormone) than usual telling your body to stay awake and hunt for food.
- The quality of sleep oscillates night to night. If you have a terrible 4 hour night of sleep, the next day you may have a nice 7-8 hour night to make up for it.
- The good news? When you get an hour or two less sleep on a fast, it often doesn’t feel like you actually got that much less sleep. For example, sometimes if I get 5 hours of sleep, I feel as if I actually got 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep.
What can you do about it?
- Avoid or reduce caffeine – It is common to try to reduce hunger by overcompensating with caffeine. Having more caffeine than normal will create sleep issues. When fasting, try to finish any caffeine intake 1-2 hours earlier than you normally would. If you are used to coffee all day, try to taper to something lighter like iced tea. You may even want to reduce or completely avoid caffeine altogether if you are having issues.
- Keep good sleep hygiene – All the basic good sleep habits that you have heard about also apply to fasting. Keeping a cool sleeping environment, low frequency noise, low light/eye mask, leveraging meditation, avoiding screens before bed, and reducing caffeine intake later in the day. If interested, read Matt Walker’s Why We Sleep for a great in-depth source on sleep.
- Supplement protocol – Still refining, but I have found the following helpful so far, taken 45 minutes before bedtime:
- 4 x 100 mg of phospatedylserine/ps100 (reduces cortisol)
- 1 x 100mg of L-theanine (relaxes, calms)
- 3 x 100mg magtein/magnesium threonate (electrolytes, also helps with sleep)
- 1-2 x 2000 iu Vitamin D
- Napping – A late morning to early afternoon nap can act as a nice pick up if you are dragging. Try to keep it 20 minutes to no longer than 90 minutes (the time frame for one full sleep cycle) and avoid late afternoon naps to not disrupt your night’s sleep.
