Since the beginning of the year (2025), and really since I got out of the Navy in 2007 I have had trouble sleeping. I’ve had this problem for nearly 18 years. There have been times when I was awake for several days in a row. It’s not healthy, and I always felt horrible.
As I think back over the last five years or so, the times I was sleeping best were the times I was intermittent fasting regularly. My current “attempt” at weight loss involves intermittent fasting and a very low-carb diet. In fact, it is very near zero carbs.
I made the connection this time around between when I eat and when I sleep. When my fast begins in the early evening hours, I find that I am sleeping better through the night. I started this current effort around 4 weeks ago, and my sleep has been so much better. I’m in bed between 8:30-9:00, and I’m up before seven most mornings.
I’m always reading up on intermittent fasting its benefits. This morning, I read an article by Rob Wolfe called “5 INTERMITTENT FASTING SCHEDULES (AND HOW TO PICK).” In the article, he states,
“By fasting overnight, you promote the conditions necessary for restful sleep. Why? Because food (like light) activates the part of your brain that controls your metabolism, appetite, sleep cycles, and more. Food during the day wakes you up, fasting at night shuts you down.”
I don’t know the science behind it, but it sounds reasonable, and it matches the experience I have been having. There are many other benefits to intermittent fasting, including improved metabolic health and weight-loss. Of course, eating the right foods during my eating window is also key to health.
In the past, I have not always chosen the right foods. Amazingly, the fasting was enough in itself to effectivley lower my A1C though it did nothing for my weight.
Zero-carbs is making a difference along with intermittent fasting. I’m sleeping better, and I’m burning fat. I am in nutritional ketosis for the first time since I began trying to lose weight in 2015.
I have been exercising at the gym, and walking while fasted. I have not had a lack of energy. I’m feeling well for a change, and it seems to be getting better every day.
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