As people across America choose healthier diets, they find that their healthy choices are paying dividends in unexpected ways. Your overall health connects to your food choices in more areas than you can imagine. For example, going keto can increase your brain functionality; it can help your body regulate hormones that control your hunger cravings, and now researchers think it can help you sleep better.
Several recent studies indicate that the beneficial health effects of the ketogenic diet may extend to the rest you get at night. Don’t believe it? Check out the following two studies.
Keto, teenagers, and sleep
No doubt about it–teenagers love to sleep. When you find a teenager who does not sleep well, you can guess that something might be physiologically off. One team of researchers studied the effects of the keto diet in a group of morbidly obese teenagers.1 This study included six adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen years old who were described as being morbidly obese. Researchers placed the teens on a strict ketogenic diet for twenty weeks, severely limiting their carbohydrate consumption.
The study tracked their weight loss, energy expenditure, and sleep quality. As expected, over the course of the study, the youth lost a significant amount of weight, almost all of which was from fat. But, interestingly, each of the young study participants experienced an increase in sleep quality. Their rapid eye movement sleep grew from basically non-existent to near-normal levels. In conclusion, researchers suggested that the keto “diet can be used for rapid weight loss in adolescents with morbid obesity…and sleep abnormalities significantly decrease with weight loss.”
Keto, adults, and sleep
Another study conducted by a team of researchers found similar results with an entirely different group.2 This test followed the effects of keto on the well-being of twenty obese patients. The study tracked several different factors, including food craving, physical activity, and sleepiness. In each of these areas, the patients studied exhibited a “statistically significant” positive difference. Notably, the study found that participants experienced significantly less sleepiness and reduced sleep abnormalities. These participants found that choosing keto and a healthier lifestyle led to better sleep!
Troubled by lack of sleep?
Good sleep is essential to good health; and good health is crucial for good rest–the two feed into each other. If you’re troubled by sleep that is not restful, perhaps now is the time to consider making some changes to your diet and your lifestyle. The Mayo Clinic offers the following suggestions to those troubled by sleepiness:3
- Pay attention to what you eat and drink
- Include physical activity in your daily routine
Your diet and level of physical activity are critical factors in your ability to get restful sleep. If you’re plagued by sleep that does not refresh and reenergize you, take the opportunity to evaluate at both your diet and exercise to see where you can make changes to better your overall health.
NUTRITIONAL DISCLAIMER
The content on this website should not be taken as medical advice and you should ALWAYS consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. We provide nutritional data for our recipes as a courtesy to our readers. We use Total Keto Diet app software to calculate the nutrition and we remove fiber and sugar alcohols, like erythritol, from the total carbohydrate count to get to the net carb count, as they do not affect your blood glucose levels. You should independently calculate nutritional information on your own and not rely on our data. The website or content herein is not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose or treat any disease. This website shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on the Website or actions you take as a result. Any action you take is strictly at your own risk.
Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD is an aesthetic medicine specialist whose work focuses on patients who are treated for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related issues through nutritional analysis, keto diet programs, and supporting medications.
- Keto Might Give Navy SEALs an Advantage - July 18, 2019
- The Primary Roles of Fat in Our Diets - July 8, 2019
- Low Carb Tech is Transforming Diabetes Treatment - June 21, 2019
