The participants’ sleep patterns also were disturbed, with a decrease in rapid eye movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep and increased wakefulness. This is likely due to an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity, triggering adrenal activity and a rise in norepinephrine, similar to a fight-or-flight-response.“If a person is having symptoms of difficulty sleeping associated with decreased REM and increased wakefulness, this could be a clue indicating salt depletion in their diet,” Leong says.

Conversely, another study found that consuming a high-sodium meal at dinnertime also contributes to sleep disturbances. Participants experienced delays in getting to sleep, multiple awakenings during the night and an average of two to three hours of disturbed sleep.

Adequate (enough) amount of salt give good REM sleep, but too much salt seem to lower the amount of Slow-Wave sleep, its a balancing act. A blood test is not good at indicating your level of salt (sodium) in the body, a hair mineral test is more accurate and give a long term picture of the mineral status. Sodium deficiency could be the cause for your insomnia and poor sleep. So yeah, even if you get 5g of salt each day (2g of sodium, the recommended amount), that might not be enough. Double that amount and see how your sleep improve, find your sweet spot. A sign of too much salt intake is the development of headache.

#sleep #insomnia #REM #SWS #Salt #Sodium
How salt affects your sleep | UCI Health | Orange County, CA