Before I started atkins, I often used carb comas to help me sleep. I sometime have irregular hours because of work so to help me sleep after a long shift, I would have a carb heavy meal before bed, and could sleep 6-8 hours, even during the day etc.
Of late I have had a lot of insomnia. I can get to sleep at night just fine, but wake up frequently, and have trouble getting back to sleep. Was not managing more than 4-5 hours a night for a while. The other night, had a little cheat and had a some whole wheat melba toast with some snack foods.
(total 6 g carbs! ) Slept like a log. In fact, remembered the last time I slept so well, that was Oct. 29th. (its bad when you can date your good sleeps!)
That night in October, was also the last time I had a little carb cheat. It was around Hallowe'en and had a little binge of sugar free chocolate candies. Total carbs, 8g. (it was a small binge, as I said!)
So the last couple of nights I have had a little snack about 830 pm with 5-7 g of carbs. have been sleeping OH SO MUCH BETTER.
I am prediabetic, and definitely have some issues with dawn effect and dumping glucose overnight, and the treatment for that is to have an evening snack with carbs, so maybe I am doing a little version of that.
But have not heard of insomnia being a problem. Anyone?

I have to wonder if you are just a bit hungry before going to bed and that's why you can't sleep? I know if I'm hungry it's hard to fall asleep. Last night I had a snack of celery before bed cuz I was feeling hungry and had no problems getting to sleep But if I'm hungry? Pft sleep isn't going to happen!

No, I don't go to be hungry, ever. And I am not hungry when I wake up in the night. I just wake up too completely and can't get back to sleep. One thing about atkins, I only get hungry if I go a long time between eating times. (on a low fat diet, I was ALWAYS hungry)

Interesting!

I don't know if it's related, but I am sleeping very well and in the last few weeks I added a bit more carb into my diet. I was recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes and tried going really low carb (for me, anyway), thinking that if reducing carbs some was good, reducing a lot would be great. That was not working for me - my fasting BG went up. Compared to how I used to eat, I'm still pretty low carb (~100g per day), but this seems to agree with me in terms of mood, energy, and quality of sleep. Hmmmm...

I have a small glass of almond breeze chocolate unsweetened drink as a snack and before bed, sleep well for my usual 5 hours, also takes away any hungry and sweet tooth I may have. Works for me.
cal 45
carb 3
fiber 1
sugar 0
protein 2

thanks Karen, I have been contemplating adding soy milk back into my diet, my hot flashes are getting bad again since I gave it up. I have been thinking that unsweetened soy milk before bed would be a good way to go.