Everyday Systems

Hi everyone, was just wondering iff anyone on here suffers from sleepless nights since doing no s. I was doing really well for about 2 months and stopped bingeing completely( my main problem) but developed really bad insomnia .So i went off the plan and my sleeping went back to normal.I am so frustrated and annoyed because i feel that no s is the best plan ive ever done to restore my disorganised eating x

I have problems with insomnia.

The two things that help: Serious exercise. I don't mean like a "nice walk." I mean like red in the face and gasping for breath workout. If I'm not training for something specific, it is HIGHLY unlikely I'll do it because it ain't all that much fun.

The other thing I do All The Time -- listen to audiobooks on a sleep timer. They have to be old favorites -- comfort reads. Think The Hobbit or Harry Potter or something like that. When things are good, fifteen minutes of a good comfort read will put me back to sleep. When they're bad, at least I'm listening to a story rather than ruminating on how I'm not sleeping or having my evil brain bring up every damn embarrassing thing I've done since first grade or pull out every confounded worry I have about the future.

I can relate to weight loss insomnia (from calorie restriction not No S). It is very frustrating. You could try:
- making sure that you do not exercise too close to bedtime
- using a relaxing mantra and breathing to try to get back to sleep
- if you are waking up hungry you could have a small glass of milk

Try not to worry about it because it will resolve itself long term and stressing will only make the insomnia worse.

buterfly15 wrote:Hi everyone, was just wondering iff anyone on here suffers from sleepless nights since doing no s. I was doing really well for about 2 months and stopped bingeing completely( my main problem) but developed really bad insomnia .So i went off the plan and my sleeping went back to normal.I am so frustrated and annoyed because i feel that no s is the best plan ive ever done to restore my disorganised eating x

I haven't so far, but have struggled off and on with it in the past. I know how frustrating it can be! Things that have helped me are the things most often mentioned:

daily exercise
prayer (spiritual discipline relaxes the mind)
making sure I drink enough water (I think this is especially important if you are taking in fewer calories, because you are also getting a lot less fluid without realizing it when you eat less)
having a nightly routine that's relaxing (ie, no computer or TV within an hour of bedtime--try a shower or bath, and then reading something relaxing in bed for awhile).
Magnesium is calming, and I take that within an hour of bedtime when I'm struggling (otherwise I tend to take it with vitamins earlier in the day).

Take note of things that keep you up (I've noticed if I do Sudoku puzzles before bed, I don't sleep as soundly and have strange dreams, for example).

Keep a journal handy by your bedside. Write down anything you're afraid you'll forget (things to do the next day, things troubling you etc...) to try to let them go.

Usually I can get back on track with natural aids, but when my kids were babies, I always got terrible insomnia when they stopped waking at night to feed. I would wake up and couldn't get back to sleep. I think because of all the hormonal changes, I just couldn't get my sleep to regulate--I ended up taking a sleep aid after a month of hardly sleeping, to get back into a pattern again. I hated to go that route, but it was temporary and helped me shift back to normal habits.

What kind of "off plan" are we talking about?

I was really stressed a couple years back when I got a new and very demanding job. I started taking 5HTP. It helped me deal with the stress and I now have the best sleep ever. I only take it a couple times a week, but it seems to carry me for a few days. Just something to think about.

I had significant, permanent insomnia with the style of intermittent fasting that has you fast for 24 hrs, but no problems with no-S. It sounds like you've identified that something about how you do No-S is unfortunately the problem, so could you try reworking your meal times around so that you aren't going to bed with as many hours without food? Or shuffle it so that your last meal is the bigger one? Are you possibly just eating too few calories? I've also heard some people eating low carb can suffer from insomnia.

What a gift that it stopped your bingeing! Sing it from the rooftops! I'm sure you can find a work-around on the insomnia with some time.

Yes! I just noticed it because I am back on the plan (1 week). And I'm thinking about adding in another (optional) meal before bedtime.

I would still eat way better than I did before and it might help me well again. And technically it's not even 'against the rules' to add in an extra meal.

I'll let you know how it works out for me...

I find that 1/2 melatonin pill helps me.
I think my body was used to having carbs to digest during the night and it takes a while for the sleep hormones to catch up. Good luck.

So glad this forum exists! I had trouble sleeping last night (woke up and couldn't get back to sleep) and blamed my sleep supplement. Then I happened upon a couple of posts in the forum about No S and insomnia.

Hopefully once my body adjusts to the lower calorie intake, it won't need to keep me up in the middle of the night. Off to research insulin levels and sleeplessness...

I realize the OP hasn't posted since starting this thread back on January 22, but I had to reply in case anyone else has a similar problem and sees this thread.

In the past when I was on a very low carb diet or a very low calorie diet, I had insomnia. It was from being in ketosis. It's just a thought, but it's possible that buterfly15's three meals were much too small and she was in ketosis.

So my advice would be to eat more at meals and see if her sleep improved.

If people eat fewer calories than they need, they burn fat, right? Does that constitute being in ketosis? Doesn't it mean people go in and out of ketosis when they eat less than their body needs? I'm just asking out of curiosity, if anybody knows. Nothing to do with the sleep issue. I've had sleep problems since long before No S and losing weight.