Sleep

After week 1 of the diet, I started to notice some problems sleeping. Not necessarily getting to sleep, but I'd wake up at around 2:30am - almost always within 10 minutes of 2:30 - and then not be able to get back to sleep.

It wasn't even that I was hungry. I woke with a buzzing mind, thinking about all sorts of daft-but-benign stuff and in the end, I just had to get up, wake up properly and then go back to bed 20 minutes later. It doesn't make for a good nigh's sleep and I'm convinced that this is related to the diet, probably a lack of any carbohydrate trough overnight.

My wife has been a light sleeper for many years, and once she wakes up, she has trouble sleeping again. She has drunk a "Sleep Easy" tea (see the post on Drinks) for a couple of years, and so - as I'm OK with milk free hot drinks now, I make 2 cups, one each.

For me, this tea works wonders. It doesn't make me sleepy, but keeps me asleep once I drop off. There's a little bit of "don't really want to get up" in the morning, but that's easily overcome and once you're up, there's no grogginess. Look - I'm drinking one now ;-)

As a further side effect the diet is having on sleep, my reduction in body fat is reducing my propensity to snore. Or at least, so I'm told - I never hear me snore. This reduces the likelihood that I'll wake my wife up through snoring, and leads to a happier household. And less bruising from sharp elbows.

E.