I’ve been stopping eating after breakfast and lunch, 6Am-noon most days. It’s been surprisingly easy. I did this mainly because I saw some people report better sleep when doing so and since my sleep sucks, I dove in head first.
What I wonder though, is WHY you sleep better when fasting? Is there any science behind it or just anecdotal feedback of varying degrees? I see some comments online claim melatonin production goes up when you fast which helps sleep, other comments say skipping dinner raises cortisol levels which will interfere with sleep, and other conflicting statements. I intend to follow the “if it works for me do it, if it doesn’t, don’t” plan, but I’m curious if anyone knows the science behind this. Thank you.
Your liver gets to go to sleep on time since it’s not handling insulin surges due to late night eating. The liver produces a ton of body heat. So your body gets to cool down on schedule for you to go to sleep and stay asleep.
Dr.Satchin Panda has a book called Circadian Code that explains body clocks, and rhythmic gene expression. In 2017 a group of researchers won a Nobel prize for discovering the machinery that manages circadian rhythms. Really fascinating stuff. IF is very synergistic with Circadian Rhythms.
Also works for me. Can’t quote the science. It always feels like magic to me, to go to bed in varying degrees of hungry (somewhat … a lot … ravenous) but always wake up feeling normal / indifferent to eating.