The benefits of fasting are well known. Dr Jason Fung said in his book, “The Diabetes Code,” that it can not only prevent but also reverse type 2 diabetes. A 2008 study found that for people who offer religious fasting like in Ramadan, it lowers the risk of coronary artery disease. Furthermore, in his “Fast, Feast, Repeat” book, Gin Stevens cited a 2008 review that found that fasting can help you live longer and younger.
What about sleep? Does fasting improve sleep?
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We don’t know why fasting works. The prestigious journal Nature stated that science still doesn’t understand the fundamentals of why fasting works. That is why researchers keep discovering and unpacking new benefits of fasting. This nudges me to reflect on how fasting impacts my sleep.
I’m writing this at 4 am. I woke up at exactly 3 am feeling fully refreshed and awake. But I went to bed early too – at a few minutes past 8 pm! This means that I got seven solid hours of sleep and feel rested enough to invest my early morning hours in prayers and writing.
How did I manage that? Because I slept early.
I’ve not always slept this early. My bedtime is 9.30 pm to wake up at 4.30 am. Even though this is early enough, sometimes, I struggle to go to sleep. Yoga used to help me achieve this. When I was younger, the headstand during yoga practice and early morning jog helped me to sleep at will – at any time of the day or night. Indeed, I used to boast to my friends that “I can sleep at will.”
While much of that is still true, some days I battle. However, not on fasting days. any time I fast, even without doing yoga or any exercise during the day, sleep comes easily.
So I decided to check out the evidence. A simple search returned many studies that tied fasting to good sleep. I will give you three of them.
In April 2019, Psychology Today reviewed some studies and reported that “the timing and duration of fasting can influence how it affects sleep. Some studies suggest that periodic, short-term fasting can improve sleep. One study found fasting periodically reduced awakenings during the night and decreased leg movements (which can be highly disruptive to sound sleep).”
But I learned the actual secret of the association between sleep and fasting while reading the highly insightful article on Ouraring.com. This is the summary of the article: “Intermittent fasting causes insulin levels to drop and melatonin levels to rise. Melatonin is your body’s primary sleep-promoting hormone and can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.”
Another insightful piece is Tom Ryan’s article for the Sleep Foundation. Inthe his article entitled “Why Intermittent Fasting Can Lead to Better Sleep”, he wrote:
“People engaged in intermittent fasting may also notice they have more energy and focus. Fasting increases the production of orexin-A, a neurotransmitter tied to alertness. Specifically, people who fast have lower orexin-A levels at night, and higher levels in the daytime, so they feel more alert during the day and enjoy a more restful sleep.”
The foregoing explanations answer the question we started with: does fasting cure insomnia. Even though insomnia is not addressed directly, we know that fasting improves sleep.
But we must avoid unhelpful advice such as this:
“If you practice intermittent fasting, stay hydrated during the day. A hydrated body will help you sleep well at night rather than a dehydrated body, which will lead to restless sleep and sometimes even snoring. If you need help relaxing after a long day, try yoga techniques to help you sleep better.”
This advice by Dorma Sleep Services is completely wrong. As a Muslim, while fasting, I don’t drink water during the day and still get sound sleep at night. Indeed, the definition of the Islamic fast is to abstain from food and drink. However, when I checked, this advice was not based on any science.
So how can you implement this in your life to achieve better sleep? You have some options. The straightforward way is to simply do the Muslim fast – which is a form of intermittent fasting. Another way to apply it to adopt intermittent fasting as defined by the West. For example, you can stop eating at 7 pm. Or skip breakfast and start your daily meal at noon and stop eating at 8 p.m. This way, you are using what is called 16:8 intermittent fasting. That is you fast for 16 hours (your night sleep is also counted as fasting hours) and eat for eight hours. In this Western form of fasting, you’re also allowed to drink water.
Whatever one you choose, it appears that fasting helps you sleep.
