The FastDay Forum

Thanks to Sallyo and all those who have suggested exercise/walking I am sure that is a good idea. I have now ordered the Mindfulness book suggested by marlathome (through our special Amazon link here of course!) and I have also been impressed by the Sleepio website, thanks for the suggestion cockaduck.

Hope others are finding this topic helpful too!

Time for a decaff coffee...

Many doctors prescribe magnesium to those with restless leg syndrome because it helps them sleep better. I'm guessing that if your legs are normal, magnesium will work even better.

If your insomnia is caused by obsessive thoughts or repeatedly thinking about an event or experience this may help.

Mind Changers about

James Pennebaker and Expressive Writing
Duration: 28 minutes

Pennebaker's ground-breaking experiment was published in 1986; he showed that simply writing about one's emotions can significantly improve one's health. His work revolutionised how emotions are viewed within psychology.

Everyone has such good ideas. I think this adds to the discussion.

Hi there,

I am somebody who has never had any problems whatsoever with sleeping. In fact cancel that, I do have problems with sleep but they happen when I try and wake up.
Having said that, I do find that I rarely sleep well during the second night of my 36 hour fasts.
Im fasting 4:3 at the moment and my 3 fasts are 36 hour (night/day/night) fasts. Obviously the first night is a normal night as my body hasnt detected anything unusual but on my second night I nearly always suffer either from a broken nights sleep or I wake up at 5am and cant get back to sleep.
Ive taken to just getting up and making the most of the chance to get things done early and if I do get up, Ill just have breakfast anyways but it is definitely something I consistently notice.

I have had real problems with insomnia on my fast nights since starting a month ago - and my sleep in general isn't that great. But last night I didn't sleep quite as badly! Not sure if I'm just getting used to 5:2 in general, or if there's some other factor, but one thing I did differently last night was to heat my bed.

I've noticed I feel quite cold on fast nights. As it's autumn here in Australia, I usually have my electric blanket on the lowest setting. But last night I upped it to the medium setting, and maybe it helped?

Not a definitive test, of course, but might be worth a try for some?

Just an update to my posts about sleep problems - I did several things, all from advice and suggestions posted on this forum. I put a blackout blind in my bedroom, started to supplement with magnesium and decided, even though I am a long way from target weight, to reduce fasting to 6.1 and I am sleeping much better. All good, but of course the downside is I am no longer losing weight. I am one of the lucky ones who has had a good and steady weight loss from the start so being on a plateau is not the end of the world. I am consoling myself with thinking that it's giving my skin time to shrink nicely! I am returning to 5.2 next week and hoping that my sleep problems don't return until I reach Shangrila, (or maintenance!) So, the three pronged sleep attack worked, but was it the blackout blind (Scottish nights are ridiculously short at this time of year), the magnesium supplementation or is doing 5.2 putting my body into a state of super alertness ?

dhana I swear by the Magnesium...blackout helps too...my nerdy friend did research and came up with Magnesium Orotate as best but I can't remember why...however u could go back to 5:2 and see if u sleep...btw my insomnia was so bad I saw a Dr...something I never do...it was debilitating - now I only have insomnia if i forget magnesium for a few nights - easy to do when u sleep so well.