I’ve done fasting many times over my life, and honestly the sleep is overwhelmingly the major obstacle I face. During the day? I’m fine, if I’m hungry I just ignore it. Stay busy, never notice the hunger. Day 1, day 2, day 4, whatever, easy peasy lemon squeezy. Hunger is nothing.
But at NIGHT?!
It’s miserable. I lie there and pray for the sweet oblivion of death. Sleep feels impossible, starting from the first night. Why it’s so hard to fall asleep on an empty stomach, I don’t know, but it is. Hours and hours of lying in bed, days of feeling tired because I slept 2 hours the night before.
Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone been here and found a solution? Anyone got any ideas?
> It’s miserable. I lie there and pray for the sweet oblivion of death.
I have no advice, but it’s nice to be able to find someone who shares my pain.
Just doing IF for the next few days before I start the actual fast, so a soup a day before bed. But laying sleepless at night really does make it so much harder
I added epsom salt baths during my last fast. Also added lavender essential oil. It helped so much it’s now part of my regular routine. I still woke up super early but I felt rested and fell asleep quickly. I don’t take any sleep aids. I stopped melatonin around Thanksgiving.
I deal with it simply by not worrying about it. When I have insomnia from fasting, I simply get up and do something until I am tired enough to try again. Fasting upregulates hormones that can make it harder to sleep– but those same hormones help keep you from being tired.
I feel like this is cheating but during my first 7 day fast, I took ibuprofen pm day 3 & 4 cuz I was really wired and couldn’t sleep at all. Got better as I went on and I just needed less sleep overall.
Sometimes a take Dramamine (OTC nausea and motion sickness med). You have to make sure you don’t get the non-drowsy formula. Get the original. It helps make you drowsy enough to get a little sleep usually. But I’ve had insomnia since I was a child so it doesn’t always work for me because I’m so used to it. Fasting just makes the insomnia worse for me because the adrenals pump out a ton of cortisol which keeps your brain awake in “fight or flight” mode.
You can also try transdermal magnesium. It’s a spray that gets absorbed by your skin. It has helped me a few times.
But I feel ya and know that others out there deal with this too. I’m 36 hours into my fast and I have to leave for work in an hour and I got exactly zero hours of sleep between these 2 shifts!
Fiber pills help with cravings. Drink plenty of water with them.
I usually take a hot shower and have a coffee about a hour before I want to sleep. The caffeine crash is enough to let me sleep for a couple hours. I know everyone isn’t wired like that. Worth a shot though.