Because carbohydrates enhance tryptophan uptake, you may not feel that same pull toward sleep when you stop eating carbs. Additionally, you’ll no longer experience the same spike in blood sugar levels that occurs after eating refined carbs like white bread or potato chips. Sudden increases in blood sugar levels followed by an inevitable sugar crash can leave us feeling tired (per Sleep Doctor). While it’s generally recommended to keep consumption of refined carbs to a minimum, going carb-free means we don’t have this fluctuation of blood sugar levels to help induce sleepiness.
When you dial back your carb intake, how much time your body spends in different sleep phases throughout the night may also change. In the scientific evaluation published in Frontiers in Nutrition, experts point to a study that found that eating less carbs produced an increase in slow-wave sleep duration and a decrease in time spent in REM sleep. As the Sleep Foundation explains, REM sleep is paramount to brain development, memory, emotional processing, and more.