Going on a high fat, low carb diet has countless benefits, from losing weight to having more energy. However, new keto dieters may get concerned about the dreaded keto insomnia, which is a common result of transitioning from a high carb diet to a high fat, low carb diet. Even though it’s normal to be concerned, there’s good news, which we explain throughout this article. After becoming keto-adapted (which means a body gets used to burning fat as opposed to carbs), sleep usually improves. For many, they claim that after the transition, they sleep better and deeper. In addition to the Body Reboot book explaining how the keto diet results in countless health benefits, there is science that backs the claims that a high fat may also improve sleep quality.

Before we discuss some of the research that states that a ketogenic diet can help improve sleep quality, let’s take a look at how much sleep you should get. According to Perfect Keto, this is what adequate sleep should entail:

There’s a whole science to the basic structural organization of sleep known as sleep architecture.

According to this basic architecture, your body experiences two different kinds of sleep on an alternating cycle:

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep, which is deep and restorative.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, which is when your brain works on storing and filing away memories like lessons you’ve learned or happy moments.

Your first sleep cycle lasts between 70 and 100 minutes; following cycles last longer for around 90–120 minutes each.

About 75–80% of your total time spent sleeping happens during NREM sleep..

There are three stages to NREM sleep:

Stage N1 sleep lasts one to seven minutes as you transition from being awake to falling asleep. This is the lightest stage of sleep and the easiest to wake up from.
Stage N2 sleep lasts approximately 10 to 25 minutes in the initial cycle and lengthens with each cycle afterward. Known as a true sleep state, N2 accounts for 40–50% of your sleep time.
Stage N3 sleep has many names: slow wave sleep (SWS), deep sleep, delta sleep, etc. This stage makes up about 20% of sleep in average adults and lasts between 20–40 minutes. N3 sleep is necessary for you to feel refreshed the next day.

Even though experts have conducted research that says a high-fat diet can negatively affect sleep, Perfect Keto sites a study that says otherwise. It turns out the keto diet may help with sleep as opposed to taking away from it.

During one study to evaluate the sleep of 18 children with therapy-resistant epilepsy, researchers put participants on a ketogenic diet (KD) for three months.

A keto diet helped reduce the frequency and severity of seizures — an obvious win in and of itself. But it also changed the participants’ sleep cycles.

Even though keto significantly decreased the children’s total sleep time, it preserved slow wave sleep time and increased REM sleep.

Thanks to the additional SWS and REM sleep time, researchers noticed “a significant correlation” between more REM sleep and an improvement in the children’s quality of life.

Later, 11 children from the study continued a keto diet and were re-evaluated after 12 months. Researchers found a sustained keto diet:

Significantly decreased daytime sleepiness
Further increased REM sleep time
This is great news if you find yourself yawning too much during the day, as is this next study.

Perfect Keto referred to a study completed by Epilepsia in 2007. Here are more details on why the study revealed that children had less sleepiness during the day as well as improved REM sleep time.

PURPOSE:
The study purpose was to evaluate sleep structure during ketogenic diet (KD) treatment in children with therapy-resistant epilepsy and to correlate possible alterations with changes in clinical effects on seizure reduction, seizure severity, quality of life (QOL), and behavior.

METHODS:
Eighteen children were examined with ambulatory polysomnographic recordings initially and after 3 months of KD treatment. Eleven children continued with the KD and were also evaluated after 12 months. Sleep parameters were estimated. Seizure frequency was recorded in a diary and seizure severity in the National Health Seizure Severity Scale (NHS3). QOL was assessed with a visual analogue scale. Child behavior checklist and Ponsford and Kinsella's rating scale of attentional behavior were used.

RESULTS:
KD induced a significant decrease in total sleep (p = 0.05) and total night sleep (p = 0.006). Slow wave sleep was preserved, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep increased (p = 0.01), sleep stage 2 decreased (p = 0.004), and sleep stage 1 was unchanged. Eleven children continued with the KD and were also evaluated after 12 months. They showed a significant decrease in daytime sleep (p = 0.01) and a further increase in REM sleep (p = 0.06). Seizure frequency (p = 0.001, p = 0.003), seizure severity (p < 0.001, p = 0.005) and QOL (p < 0.001, p = 0.005) were significantly improved at 3 and 12 months. Attentional behavior was also improved, significantly so at 3 months (p = 0.003). There was a significant correlation between increased REM sleep and improvement in QOL (Spearman r = 0.6, p = 0.01) at 3 months.

CONCLUSION:
KD decreases sleep and improves sleep quality in children with therapy-resistant epilepsy. The improvement in sleep quality, with increased REM sleep, seems to contribute to the improvement in QOL.

Perfect Keto also discusses how people who are overweight often deal with sleeping problems such as sleep apnea and a host of other sleep issues. It turns out that an estimated 22 million Americans suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).Many of these people also have diabtetes to contend with as well. Since keto helps you burn fat, losing weight may reverse OSA and help you sleep better as well.

That’s why researchers in one study put six morbidly obese participants ranging from 12 to 15 years old on a modified version of a keto diet. For eight weeks, participants ate a high-protein, low-carbohydrate, and low-fat diet known as K1.

Then, participants followed a second diet with additional carbs for 12 weeks after that (K+2 diet).

That’s why researchers in one study put six morbidly obese participants ranging from 12 to 15 years old on a modified version of a keto diet. For eight weeks, participants ate a high-protein, low-carbohydrate, and low-fat diet known as K1.

Then, participants followed a second diet with additional carbs for 12 weeks after that (K+2 diet).

During final evaluations, participants:

Lost an average of 33 pounds during the K1 diet, and an additional five pounds during the K+2 diet phase.
Lowered their BMI and decreased body fat percentage from 51% to 44% during K1; and then to 41.6% during K+2.
Lost mostly fat and from equal areas of their body.
Did not lose lean body mass in the process.
Impressive scale victories aside, what does this trial show about sleep?

Every participant recorded excessive slow wave sleep times and minimal REM sleep when the study began. But the weight loss after a keto diet increased REM sleep and decreased SWS to “near normal” levels.

Here are the results explained by Pediatrics’ researchers in January 1998:

Results. Subjects lost 15.4 ± 1.4 kg (mean ± SEM) during the K diet and an additional 2.3 ± 2.9 kg during the K+2 diet. Body mass index decreased 5.6 ± 0.6 kg/m2during the K diet and an additional 1.1 ± 1.1 kg/m2during the K+2 diet. Body composition studies indicated that weight was lost equally from all areas of the body and was predominantly fat. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry showed a decrease from 51.1% ± 2.1% body fat to 44.2% ± 2.9% during the K diet and then to 41.6% ± 4.5% during the K+2 diet. Lean body mass was not significantly affected. Weight loss was accompanied by a reduction in resting energy expenditure of 5.2 ± 1.8 kcal/kg of fat-free mass per day. Blood chemistries remained normal throughout the study and included a decrease in serum cholesterol from 162 ± 12 to 121 ± 8 mg/dL in the initial 4 weeks of the K diet. An increase in calcium excretion was accompanied by a decrease in total-body bone mineral content. A paucity of rapid eye movement sleep and excessive slow-wave sleep were seen in all subjects at enrollment. Weight loss led to an increase in rapid eye movement sleep (P < .02) and a decrease in slow-wave sleep (P < .01) to near normal levels.

Conclusions. The K diet can be used effectively for rapid weight loss in adolescents with morbid obesity. Loss in lean body mass is blunted, blood chemistries remain normal, and sleep abnormalities significantly decrease with weight loss.

Now that you know that going on a high-fat diet can help you sleep better at night, you might be wondering how you can get started on a ketogenic lifestyle. Right now we’re giving away free copies of the Body Reboot book! Cover the cost of shipping, and we’ll send you a FREE book. Head to this page and find out if there are any copies left.

Sources: Perfect Keto, NCBI: Epilepsia. 2007, Pediatrics January 1998