I’m writing this on the second day of the second phase of the Eating Window Experiment, thus having completed the first day where the three meals moved to 4pm, 5:30pm and 7:00pm.
I’ll concede it’s been a bumpier ride than I was expecting. First, the consumption period of the three meals was very difficult and I was just at the edge of light nausea toward the end. I think I’ll need a touch more time between meals. Secondly, I had trouble getting to sleep, then woke up three hours later and wasn’t able to return to sleep. I managed to get another nap in this morning for about an hour and twenty minutes, but it wasn’t particularly restful.
This issue with sleep has had a meaningful impact on my day as I’ve experienced insomnia-like symptoms for the most of the morning. Not quite awake, not quite asleep, and not very functional. It’s possible this is just something I’d adjust to over the next few nights, but I can’t really take that chance given my existing meetings and responsibilities.
Thus, I’m shifting the eating window from evening to late morning with today as an interstitial step. Additionally, I’ll be spacing the meals two hours apart instead of an hour and a half.
Amended schedule:
- Today (14th): 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm
- 15th: 10am, 12pm, and 2pm
- 16th: 10am, 12pm, and 2pm
- 17th: 10am, 12pm, and 2pm
Two hours may be not enough time to digest and empty the stomach. I use niacin to know when it happens (flush equals meal is digested)
I assume you take the Niacin with your meals? Are you taking SR/ER Niacin or the immediate release? those flushes can pack a wallop!
Yes, with each meal, it is SR but I break 500mg into halves so it kicks in most of times. I try not to drink before that happens to have a good digestion. I am having 1000-1500 calories per meal and it takes at least 4 hours.
Thanks for your thoughts Chris – I supplement B vitamins and have sometimes noticed a delayed feeling from the niacin in the supplement sometimes so found your comment interesting. I’m sure he’ll share if anything changed from switching the eating window timing and if that resolved the issue.
I am still experimenting as it is not always indicative (I may be getting used to it and not having the flush). I quite like the idea.
If you can’t sleep, and can be even better than a nap, practice Yoga Nidra. There are millions of variations on YouTube. Rod Stryker has a great app, Sanctuary (but you’ll have to pay for premium. His program got me through my time as the primary caregiver for my parents at the end of their lives. And, I’m a long time yoga practitioner. 20 minutes of yoga Nidra, especially at about 4 pm in the afternoon and I’ve got another good 4 hours of full on capacity. Many people often fall asleep to this stuff. There’s also some interesting science behind it.
Hi. Your eating window spaces are MUCH too close together, both am and pm. It takes 3 hours minimum
to digest anything other than raw fruit. Thus you are adding food onto food still sitting there. It WILL screw up your circadian/sleep patterns, trust me. Eating times should be further apart depending on their composition.
This is very interesting to me – I’ve been doing the 10am-2pm IF but without specific meal structure. No issues sleeping, but have considered opening the window a bit so I’m not feeling uncomfortably stuffed after 2pm. Looking forward to following your journey!
Hi Dave — does it feel like you are forcing yourself to eat more than you really want to? Many dietary studies allow participants to eat “ad libitum” meaning “as much as you want” — one side of this coin is putting no upper limits on eating, but I think for you it might be more relevant to think of this as having no lower limits on eating. Cramming a “normal” amount of food into a limited time window sounds like a recipe for being “too full”, which I know for me would 100% lead to discomfort, difficulty sleeping, etc. Best of luck to you, but if I were you I would consider modifying your experiment so that you don’t have to FORCE yourself to eat a “normal” amount of food if you don’t feel like it (“ad libitum” but possibly only in terms of no lower limit on food quantity). Side note: if you’re looking for relief from being “too full” I have found that peppermint tea or peppermint oil pill can help soothe the belly and help it to process things and move things along more quickly.