I Know Why You CAN'T SLEEP.
In a Nutshell
Waking at 2-3 a.m. on a carnivore/low-carb diet often signals healthy biphasic sleep or issues like cortisol spikes from low daytime fat (eat more fat, especially 80/20 meats and butter before bed), inflammation from inflammatory meats like grain-fed chicken, caffeine sensitivity (cut off by noon or quit), electrolyte deficiencies (salt food with sea salt for magnesium/sodium/potassium), overheating (cool room to 66-67°F, quality cooling mattress), disrupted circadian rhythm (morning sunlight, no screens 2+ hours before bed), or chronic stress. Prioritize fat-heavy meals, electrolytes, optimal sleep environment, and stress reduction to stay asleep despite modern schedules. Deep sleep drives health, immunity, and longevity—dial it in for superhuman results.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
We spend nearly one-third of our lives laying in bed sleeping or trying to sleep. On average, that's 25 years of your life that you're in bed. If something is going wrong and you're not getting that deep regenerative sleep, it matters and it's important. In this video, eight reasons why you may wake up at 2 or 3:00 in the morning and can't fall back asleep, plus what to do about it. Stay tuned till the very end for two bonus reasons that other people aren't talking about.
For all of mankind, for as long as we've been breathing air and drinking water until only recently, just a fraction of recent time, we were biphasic sleepers. We would sleep for several hours, naturally wake up for an hour or two, and then go back to bed. You can take comfort in knowing that since the start of time we were biphasic sleepers. If you wake up at 2 or 3:00 in the morning, it's probably because you're pretty darn healthy. It's probably because you've returned to a proper human diet and your body is reverting back to what your ancestors used to do, what they used to eat and how they used to sleep. Times have changed. We don't have the luxury of waking up at 3:00 in the morning and not falling back asleep when we have to get up, get the kids ready for school, and go to work.
Reason number one you're waking up at 3 in the morning is your cortisol is spiking. When you go on a low carb or proper human diet, things shift. You have less glucose stored and in the middle of the night you may run out of glucose storage and your cortisol will spike to enact gluconeogenesis to create glucose from protein, which will often wake you up.
- Solution: Eat more fat throughout the day. Instead of eating lean cuts, go 80/20 ground beef. Eat more fat, eat more butter, and prioritize eating more fat during your last meal of the day.
Reason two is inflammation. Many still have inflammation even if only eating animal products. Inflammation is critical for sleep. The speaker snored for years and thought it was because overweight, but started carnivore diet and stopped snoring almost immediately. Research showed snoring was from inflammation. If waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning, it could be inflammation even on proper human diet. For example, eating a lot of chicken—chicken is often fed grains with glyphosate. Chicken has only one stomach, so whatever the chicken eats, you end up eating. Chicken can be highly inflammatory for many people. It could be the animal foods you're eating that are still inflaming you.
Reason number three is caffeine. Many carnivores do fine with coffee, but coffee becomes more potent on proper human diet. Before proper human diet, carbs, sugars, starches, fiber, eating 3-5 times a day with snacks. Now receptors are more sensitive with less input, so even a little coffee has stronger effect.
- Solutions:
- Ideally, get rid of coffee completely. Stop 100%.
- If keeping coffee, have last cup earlier. Half-life of coffee is extended on proper human diet, so cut off at noon—even 3:00 p.m. could affect sleep.
Reason number four: your environment, bed, where you're sleeping. Body naturally heats up throughout the night, peaking around 2 or 3 a.m., often waking people. Sleep expert Matthew Walker recommends sleeping in a room 66 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit, much colder than most. People keeping warmer for coziness wake up from overheating.
Bed is critical since spending one-third of life there. Speaker used to be cheap with beds but now prioritizes quality like nutrition.
Sponsor: Brooklyn Bedding sent new king-size mattress. Speaker loves it—falls asleep, stays asleep. Uses advanced cooling technologies; comfortable temperature, doesn't suck heat out. Previous mattress caused lower back and butt sink-in, waking with backache. Jen loves it too. Visit brooklynbedding.com/homesteadhow to get 30% off with code homesteadhow. Free shipping, rolled up, unrolls and expands.
Reason number five: on proper human diet, insulin drops and normalizes, body releases stored water and electrolytes—magnesium, sodium, potassium. Magnesium critical. Ancestors got electrolytes from spring, lake, river, well water rich in minerals. Modern water filtered, purified, stripped of minerals regardless of diet. Lacking magnesium causes sleep trouble.
- Solution: Get more electrolytes. Use Salter sea salt, cleanest with electrolytes. Salt every meat, eggs, animal products.
Reason number six: circadian rhythm off—internal clock for wake/sleep. Most humans' out of whack. Ancestrally, woke to natural sunlight, bed with firelight. Now screens, TV confuse body on time.
- Solution: Wake up, first light hitting eyes is natural sunlight—even cloudy. Go outside, look at clouds/nature. Resets circadian rhythm. After few days, fall asleep better at end of day.
Reason number seven: modern technology—screens, blue lights, phones, social media confuse brain. Screens before bed make body think daytime, throws off circadian rhythm, up for hours. Content spikes dopamine, stresses with over-the-top catastrophes.
- Solutions:
- Get rid of screens. Cut out couple hours before bed for massive improvement.
- Instead: read book, candlelight, red light (speaker and Jen use red light before bed).
Reason number eight: started proper human diet but not fully adapted, not getting enough fat. Energy source shifts from sugar/glucose to fat. Many keep old habits, undereat fat.
- Solution: Don't undereat. Prioritize fat, get plenty.
Bonus reason one: Cortisol spikes at 2-3 a.m. from not enough fat throughout day. Besides adding fat to every meal:
- Have a little fat right before bed.
Bonus reason two: Stress affects cortisol, hijacks it. Ancestrally, acute stress like storms or bears. Now chronic from bills, work, news, social media, TV—constant fight or flight. Many perfect diet but ignore stress.
We spend one-third of lives in bed sleeping. Prioritize sleep. Depression, anxiety, longevity, health, immune system tied to sleep. Dial in sleep to become superhuman. Leave comment: what helped improve sleep? Thumbs up. Watch recommended video.
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