Is The Paleo Diet Improving My Sleep?

Photo Credit: Bryan Wright via Compfight

I have to wonder whether Paleo (Primal, Archevore) eating I’ve been doing for the last 100+ days has had an unintended side effect (I refuse to call it diet, because that sounds so temporary)?

Sleep.

• I now get to sleep quickly at 11pm, after reading in bed for an hour or so.
• I still wake up frequently during the night, but get back to sleep almost immediately.
• I’m able to return to sleep successfully as late as 6am in the morning.
• Finally, at 7am, I cannot sleep any longer, and get up for the day. I don’t need an alarm to wake at 7am anymore.

I’ve noticed all of this in the last few weeks, and this relatively new phenomenon could be related to one of three things:

1. the introduction of calcium and magnesium supplements into my diet (Addendum 5/24/2012: New Research - Click Here)
2. the natural healing of the brain
3. the change in my diet

I cannot tell which of the three has had the most significant impact – mostly because I’ve done #1 and #3 almost simultaneously, and we have no way of measuring the healing of the brain.

My inclination after thinking about it, is that the most radical change I’ve made in the last six months is the way that I eat.

Specifically, I’ve cut down the carbohydrates I eat by about 75%, and the grain products I eat by nearly 100%. I’ve also double or tripled the amount of fat in my diet (both saturated and unsaturated, including all the derivatives – polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, etc).

I wouldn’t think that diet could have such a large effect on something like sleep (unless you’re eating habits do something to cause you to wake up during the night). Now I’m not so sure.

Has anybody else thought about this?