There is a change in your brain fuel when going low carb and/or keto... This can cause more brain activity while sleeping, relating to remembering your dreams, dreaming in vivid color or activity, or being so ... just intense that you wake feeling slightly worn out... For some people, this fades over time, for others, it requires changing things up... There are too many options to mention of what to change... The hormonal shifts, the energy shifts, sleeping deeper, sleeping better, all play a part...

Most people know about supplement timing, like you take any D3/K2 during daytime, and take magnesium at night (or both day and night, if you tolerate it okay)... MCT oil during the day (instant brain fuel), etc.

Additionally, unless you're a very rare exception, you can have a few more carbs at dinner time to help the sleep.

If you continue to have insomnia like reactions, having a bit of sea salt before bed helps, there are amino acid therapies, and temporarily (if doctor okayed), melatonin or a melatonin/theanine combo might help with sleep quality.

Using blue light blockers on your phone/electronics, keeping your sleeping space cool and very dark, using meditation before sleeping, etc. can all help improve sleep quality. Getting a good sleep/bedtime routine really helps some folks, as does trying to wake and sleep at the same time each day, even off time (weekends or days off work, etc.)...

Also, making sure to get bright light within 30 minutes of waking, and again at lunchtime, really helps to set up your proper natural circadian rhythms to taper to sleep naturally. Try going to sleep as soon as you get tired (that's your natural rhythm telling you it's ready for sleep), because if you don't, you'll get another boost of cortisol, and catch that "second wind" and find it hard to wind down. (Cortisol naturally spikes and tapers - so spikes at waking, tapers around lunch - if no nap, get light, and you'll get another natural boost, which will taper around bedtime, which is when we should sleep, not try to stay up to do more, etc....)

Your body can only uptake melatonin with adequate magnesium, so if you go that route you are best off adding both.

mandycat223 wrote: »

When I was much younger, I used to dream in musical comedy format, with all us dream characters breaking into song and dance numbers as the plot unfolded.

I miss those dreams, especially the ones where I was the lovely leading lady soprano.

Wow!

I'll have a bowl of whatever she's having......

I'm currently having a weird dream about @RalfLott and @mandycat223 communicating as lawyers with some decidedly off-beat client as a subject matter.
I think I ate too much Gorgonzola affumicata last night.....

AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »

I'm currently having a weird dream about @RalfLott and @mandycat223 communicating as lawyers with some decidedly off-beat client as a subject matter.
I think I ate too much Gorgonzola affumicata last night.....

Whoa, what a nightmare!

SuperCarLori wrote: »

AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »

I'm currently having a weird dream about @RalfLott and @mandycat223 communicating as lawyers with some decidedly off-beat client as a subject matter.
I think I ate too much Gorgonzola affumicata last night.....

Whoa, what a nightmare!

Au contraire - a dream come true! (see previous post)

I have always had freakishly vivid dreams.. I thought that was normal until learning later in life that most people don't or don't even recall their dreams. I can have some pretty Stephen King dreams that can be terrifying as well as awesome. Now that I've been low carb (trying to do keto but just can't seem to go more than two days under 20g carbs..) I've been noticing more WEIRD dreams. Some kind of twisted but mostly just don't make any sense. I suppose it's better than the drowning kittens and stabbing them through their hearts dreams I would randomly have. For the record, I love cats so... I'm at a loss as to why I'd want to kill them. I'd rescue them all if I could.

GlassAngyl wrote: »

I have always had freakishly vivid dreams.. I thought that was normal until learning later in life that most people don't or don't even recall their dreams. I can have some pretty Stephen King dreams that can be terrifying as well as awesome. Now that I've been low carb (trying to do keto but just can't seem to go more than two days under 20g carbs..) I've been noticing more WEIRD dreams. Some kind of twisted but mostly just don't make any sense. I suppose it's better than the drowning kittens and stabbing them through their hearts dreams I would randomly have. For the record, I love cats so... I'm at a loss as to why I'd want to kill them. I'd rescue them all if I could.

I am like you I have always had very vivid dreams. Going LCHF has increased them somewhat and my ability to recall details is definitely enhanced. I have always heard that its not so much about the content of the dream but how you feel in the dream that matters the most. I must admit that I use imagery from my dreams all the time to make paintings and other art work. It's interesting to breakdown what your subconscious is working through when you dream since it does in some respect relate to your conscious self even though the imagery and symbolism may be whacked out. Lucid dreaming is a whole other experience but it is sometimes difficult to attain.

As far as the killing cats it could be that you know you can't save them all. So it would depend on how you felt about it in the dream. There are probably better definitions out there in a dream dictionary.

xerogs1 wrote: »

GlassAngyl wrote: »

I have always had freakishly vivid dreams.. I thought that was normal until learning later in life that most people don't or don't even recall their dreams. I can have some pretty Stephen King dreams that can be terrifying as well as awesome. Now that I've been low carb (trying to do keto but just can't seem to go more than two days under 20g carbs..) I've been noticing more WEIRD dreams. Some kind of twisted but mostly just don't make any sense. I suppose it's better than the drowning kittens and stabbing them through their hearts dreams I would randomly have. For the record, I love cats so... I'm at a loss as to why I'd want to kill them. I'd rescue them all if I could.

I am like you I have always had very vivid dreams. Going LCHF has increased them somewhat and my ability to recall details is definitely enhanced. I have always heard that its not so much about the content of the dream but how you feel in the dream that matters the most. I must admit that I use imagery from my dreams all the time to make paintings and other art work. It's interesting to breakdown what your subconscious is working through when you dream since it does in some respect relate to your conscious self even though the imagery and symbolism may be whacked out. Lucid dreaming is a whole other experience but it is sometimes difficult to attain.

As far as the killing cats it could be that you know you can't save them all. So it would depend on how you felt about it in the dream. There are probably better definitions out there in a dream dictionary.

I use my dreams in art and writing as well. Lucid dreaming I have done many times but I never "attempted" to do so. It usually only happens when I get completely freaked out in my dream. I guess the fear helps me take it over and direct it down a more rational path. I've also had nightmares where I couldn't move at all. It was like something was sitting on my chest. My son has vivid dreams. We don't have television (I really hate noise and I get irritated with people crowding me to watch it so forbade television as soon as I moved out of my families home at 18.) but we do read a lot, which I'm sure influences a lot of it.

As for the cat dreams, I always feel disturbed in my dreams..yet it's like I'm watching myself kill them while telling myself this is horrible, stop it. Maybe it is because I can't save all of them.

My creepiest dreams however aren't about killing something or someone, it's the ones I can't interpret at all.. like standing by a barn that has a ledge, and on that ledge is a row of potted plants. In beside me is a woman who looks miserable holding a wilted potted plant. Then an angel appears and touches my green row of plants and they all wilt and die. Then he touches the woman's plant and it blossoms and the look of joy on her face is radiant. I try to ask the angel what this means, why he killed my plants, but I can't understand his language.. That has me more disturbed than a dead kitten.

GlassAngyl wrote: »

My creepiest dreams however aren't about killing something or someone, it's the ones I can't interpret at all.. like standing by a barn that has a ledge, and on that ledge is a row of potted plants. In beside me is a woman who looks miserable holding a wilted potted plant. Then an angel appears and touches my green row of plants and they all wilt and die. Then he touches the woman's plant and it blossoms and the look of joy on her face is radiant. I try to ask the angel what this means, why he killed my plants, but I can't understand his language.. That has me more disturbed than a dead kitten.

Wow! Lots of symbolism in your dream. It would be interesting to interpret it using a dream dictionary. Just at the base of it all is, in my opinion, about life and death at a personal level and even a much broader sense of the unknown associated with both. Somethings have to die in order for others to live, it is the way of life. In essence everything is born and then someday dies but it doesn't necessarily mean that things disappear, energy is constantly being recycled. I think that on a subconscious level there is fear of the unknown no matter what we consciously might believe. You might look at events leading up to a dream like that what happened a few days before. I've had fleeting thoughts become huge narratives in my dreams which is always odd. There is also an element of yourself in everything in your dream. The woman, angel, and plants are in some way facets of yourself and your subconscious is trying to work through something important.

I often think that the vivid dreaming is more about being able to recall your dreams and something about LCHF diet does that whether is different "brain fuel" or better sleep or combination of both and other factors. I like sleep and I like to dream so I just sit back and enjoy the ride for the most part. I want to say they dreams subside the longer you are on LCHF but I still have them time to time.

Thanks for sharing your dreams though they are really interesting. The last one I can recall was about swimming underwater at night with very diffused yellow lighting like a full moon refracting through the surface. This was all in preparation to do a night dive with some kind of shark like creatures and as a group we all had to swim a certain way as to not disturb the surface of the water or create large amounts of bubbles or the creatures would see us and attack. I just remember holding my breath while swimming in this odd stroke while looking up and seeing that yellowish light refracting through the water. I never felt like I was out of breath and I wasn't afraid it was just an exercise before doing something much more dangerous and exciting. I had an idea of what the creatures looked like but they weren't there. Right as I hit a lucid state and started thinking to myself "what is going on?" I woke up.