Ketogenic diet improves insomnia and daytime sleepiness among migraine patients

The key findings of this study were:

1. After three months of KD therapy, anthropometric measurements, such as body mass index and free fat mass, greatly altered, and migraine symptoms, such as decreased intensity, frequency, and disability, were improved.

2. In terms of sleep, we saw that a lower percentage of patients were plagued by insomnia (T0: 60% versus T1: 40%, p < 0.001).

3. Patients who had trouble sleeping also saw a substantial decrease after receiving KD treatment (T0: 74.3% versus T1: 34.3%, p 0.001).

4. At the follow-up, the prevalence of EDS decreased (T0: 40% versus T1: 12.9%, p < 0.001).

5. Changes in anthropometric measurements and migraine improvements were not linked with changes in sleep aspects.

Preventive treatment with the ketogenic diet was linked to better sleep in migraine sufferers, including a decline in patients with insomnia and a decline in excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Additionally, KD treatment was linked to improvements in migraine symptoms, including fewer and milder migraines.

Reference: 

Merlino, G., Tereshko, Y., Pez, S., Dal Bello, S., Pittino, A., Di Lorenzo, C., Filippi, F., Lettieri, C., Belgrado, E., Gigli, G. L., & Valente, M. (2023). Sleep of migraine patients is ameliorated by ketogenic diet, independently of pain control. In Sleep Medicine (Vol. 107, pp. 196–201). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2023.05.006