I did a 36 hours fast yesterday (5:2 style with 500 kcals in the evening). I really had a hard time falling to sleep at night. Normally I sleep like a rock.
Do you experience something similar while fasting? What can you do to help falling asleep?
Yes. This happens to me when I first start fasting. I’m on day 3 now, and the last two nights I’ve gotten about 5 hours. When fasting your body speeds up its metabolic rate and releases adrenaline so that you have more energy to find food. I haven’t fasted past 3 days before so I don’t know what happens past that - but when I’ve done intermittent fasting and high-fat/low-carb I’ve slept better than ever. Today I’m pretty energetic and chipper despite the lack of sleep.
I was doing 3 days fasts weekly but stopped due to poor sleep on 2nd and 3rd day of fast. I have switched to one meal per day and sleep has improved. I think it is related to norepinephrine release - it increases metabolism, brown fat.
Yep… 4th day into my 20:4. The last 3 nights I have woken up consistently. I feel like my body heat has risen and its just hard to fall asleep. I had to take a sleeping pill at 4 am to force myself to sleep so my muscles could rest. On a positive note, I dont wake feeling groggy. I feel very alert once Im alert either late at night or first thing in the morning.