173CHAPTERInsomnia
I
f you have trouble falling asleep at night, the most likely cause is acid
indigestion from food you ate during the day. That’s why the most
important time of the day to eat foods compatible with your metabolic
type is in the evening. People who eat the wrong foods for dinner or
right before they go to bed often feel restless. This is a little recognized
symptom of indigestion that can prevent sleep. Other causes of insom-
nia may result from stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, and salt.
The individual who goes to sleep easily but wakes up later at night
and can’t go back to sleep is often addicted to eating large quantities of
sugary foods, causing a rush of insulin that lowers the blood sugar too
drastically. The result is hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which brings
on dizziness, depression, nervousness, indigestion, muscle pains, wor-
rying, and so on—all of which can cause insomnia.
Hypoglycemia can also slow thyroid function, which triggers wake-
fulness. I have a meat-eating metabolism and a slightly underactive
thyroid and probably a mild case of hypoglycemia, so when I wake up
at 5:00 in the morning and can’t get back to sleep I eat a few slices of
red meat—a food appropriate to my meat-eating metabolism. It puts me
to sleep immediately. My husband also used to wake up at 5:00 in the
morning because of an underactive thyroid. Once he began taking thy-
roid supplements, he was able to sleep through the night.13