Compuslive night time eating?

mrjason

Hi
Just wondering if anyone else has this issue? So far all of the doctors and shrinks I've spoken to are stumped.

I wake up in the middle of the night, semi-lucid, and eat! I generally supply candy and cookies and keep them under the bed so I can fall back asleep quickly. If they're not there, I wake up and end up in the kitchen.

I've tried to keep the crap out of the kitchen but the last 2 nights I woke up and ate a sandwich, or at least some bread.

When I do this I'm sort of awake. I know I shouldn't but I can't rest, relax, or fall back asleep until I "feed the beast". I've lost weight and gained it all back plus some, mostly due to this issue. Sleeping pills don't work. Lap Band hasn't worked. I weigh 320 and can't see a way out of this. Does this hit home with ANYONE, and if so, how do you overcome it?

Thank you

crystal_sapphire

Night time eating doesn't hit home with me but do have binge eating disorder. I know you said you wander to the kitchen if you don't keep food stored under the bed, but IMO this only perpetuates it.

have you tried balanced meals 5-6 of complex carbs (so whole grains or veggies) with protein throughout the day including something before bed? or tried even lowering your carb intake a bit and filling up on whole foods such as veggies and high protein?

I wish all the best for you.

Michelle_J

I don't do it semi awake. I do occassionally have insomnia and if I'm up late I will eat whether I'm hungry or not. I have forced myself to lay in bed awake rather than get up, watch TV and eat the contents of my pantry. I have seen something similar to what you're talking about on TV though.

ladypurgatori

Thats crazy.. I used to do the same thing! I would wake up and automatically without thinking be in the kitchen eating pastries and drinking milk. My sisters used to make fun of me saying that I would wake up with crumbs on my shirt!! What I did was I restricted the amount of hours I was sleeping that way I would be more tired and sleep more soundly. It has worked for me thus far... hope it helps!!

LaurenRose2011

Stop buying candy and cookies. Simple fix. Lock your bedroom door so an extra step is required before getting to the kitchen. Slap yourself in the face when you wake up to bring yourself to a higher level of consciousness. And work on your stress/anxiety. This kind of compulsive eating can be triggered by emotional stress/anxiety.

lloydrt

Hi Jason...hey, sometimes you have to take extreme measures , until you get a plan or get things figured out.........

for me, and again, this applied to me, I didnt bring any of that **** home or have it here in the house.....

I was kind of where you were , morbidly obese, medical problems, read my bio, it will give you a heads up.......if I didnt MAKE A CHANGE ,I was going to die............thats it in a nut shell

so, .........10 mins at the gym for starters, and I changed my diet.......

you can do it, throw all that **** out of your house, plan, plan and then plan your meals and get support from your wife. You have a child, that should be your number one priority.........youre young and you can do it........

Beg, plead, what ever with your wife, but get that crap out of the house, only have fruits and vegs, and then join a gym........theres no quick way to this, you have to take it one day at a time, LOG all your calories and make friends here,,,,,,,,,We do undertsand.........
I dont mean to sound harsh, but face reality...........obesity kills, and the longer you find excuses not to lose weight, the more damage you do to your body....i.e, your sleep apnea and your high blood pressure

Keep getting counselling if you have to, find out what is the problem so you can fix it........please ,for your baby, do it.....

best wishes, and please add me as your friend.........Lloyd

gangstagirl625

force it. you said you cant go back to sleep unless you feed the beast. well force it there are times when i wake up in the middle of the night starving belly growling and everything i dont eat past 6pm so im pretty hungry i never let myself go and getsomething and i still lay there in bed sometimes an hour just thinking about how hungry i am but i always fall back to sleep and you will too. my question to you is how long have you actually let yourself just lay there and fight it. Or maybe you can trick your body b4 eating in the night drink a full glass of water sometimes your body can mistake thrist for hunger.

CelesteENelson

I have a hand and mouth fetish honestly. I am not content unless my hand is providing food to my mouth. I have broken this trend. Everyone so far is right. Get rid of that crap in your house. I didnt have that option. My husband needs it to sustain his weight (stupid I know but Dr said so. He has an extremely high metabolism). However if I awake hungry I eat ice chips. Zero Calories and it helps the water intake your body needs. That and the fruits/veggies everyone is talking about is the first step. And looking yourself in the mirror and telling yourself that you want/need to do this. I realized it was time for me to step up and change when I barely fit in a tea cup ride with my son. I was in tears. I am a stay at home mom. So I am his source of entertainment so to speak. Going and doing things and teaching him new things. I cant do that, I cant keep up with him if I didnt lose the weight and if I didnt lose the weight I wouldnt have been around to see him have children. He is my world, my heart, my everything and I want to be a better mom for him. That started with the weight. I have lost about 76 lbs in 6 1/2 months. Ive had a few stumbles with myself, my son being in/out of the hospital with stupid flu viruses and then my injured foot. But there is no reason you couldnt walk around the block or around the park or down to the store and back. May take you longer than you expect but you can do it. I used to walk circles around the island in our kitchen because my son was sleeping and no one was around to watch him. Zero excuses. Thats the only rule I have. If I screw up I take responsibility and fix it, dont make the same mistake again.Everday is a new day. I started at 327 lbs at 28 years old. I am 251 lbs now (teetering 250) at 29 years old. I want to be 180 lbs. Please feel free to add me as a friend. I'll be happy to encourage you.

lloydrt

celste, what a great post. I hope he understands what his situation is. His kidneys are going to go in renal failure, as well as he can experience high trigylcerides because of all that belly fat on his liver ,which then could give him gall stones........
his blood pressure as well as an increase in high cholesterol will require him to take stats..........he could be getting close to becoming diabetic. They are now finding some forms that are insulin resistant

Jason, we all know what you are talking about.........LOL, I hid things in the trunk of my car, no kidding, I did, or go to the store and buy only one or two things, so there wouldn t be any temptations in this house.........I did what I had to do, to save my life.....I didnt want to look sexxy, or fit in a hot look shirt, or want to look good for the prom............I wanted to live

I was close to losing the battle...........Read my bio, please.........it shows you that you can do it, Im 20 years older than you, and I FORCE myslef to be at the gym when it opens , 5;30 am.........no kidding, and Im there daily, ,for 2 - 3 hours, .......it was 18 degrees last week, and there I was , standing at the door waiting for the people to open up...........
I did it for me, for my family, and to releive the fear and anxiety of dying Jason.......

Good luck, please find support..........Lloyd

rileysowner

I posted some of my thoughts in your introductory thread. I completely agree with what has be said by other posters. I will add to the one who said just don't feed the beast. I am serious on this. If that means staying awake, that means staying awake. It will be difficult I know. I have not been where you are, but I would have been if I didn't have my wake-up call with a small stroke and listen to it. You current health issues are your wake-up call to take control and say no even when your desires say yes. I can say with complete confidence, there are worse things that being hungry and tired. You, for whatever reason, have developed this habit, now is the time to break it. There are many here who can encourage you, take their offers. One other piece of advice would be when you are tempted to eat outside of your calorie budget, think of yourself as the person you want to be, of all the things you can do then that you can't now, what would you say to yourself about giving it?

Happy_JoJo

Hi there. I totally struggled with the same issue about eight years ago. I was under extreme stress at work and was doing a "low carb" diet at the time. I would do great during the day, go to bed....sleep for a bit and wake up each night like clock work to "snack" or binge is almost more like it. In the AM I would have no recollection of this except the crumbs or evidence that I would find either in the kitchen or even worse in my sheets!!!!!! When I was dealing with this I was fresh out of college and living at home so I had no choice in what foods were in the pantry. I spoke to my doctor, yup she was stumped and so was I , my parents thought I was crazy.

As a grad student I almost did my thesis paper on this phenomenon, but due to lack of published professional medical reports I had to change my topic... You can google it, this is a real issue I think its called Night eating syndrome or something like it.

Looking back once the level of stress subsided in my life, and I stopped restricting my diet so much, I finally stopped my zombie eating every night. Good luck. !! Wish I could help more.

AmeMahoney

Lock all of your cabinets where the food is and the refrigerator. Do not keep food under your bed. Leave out an apple on the counter, and a scoop of peanut butter so when you go out to snack, you have a healthy meal ready for you, and that's all you'll have access to. Locking your bedroom door is a good option, too - if you have a lock on it! (We don't.)

When I was a therapist this is what we did for a lot of our clients, and it worked really well. Also, make sure you are eating enough calories throughout the day so you aren't actually hungry and waking up because of that.

Russellb97

I feel terrible for you. There's joy in eating and pain, and eating while semi-sleeping leaves out the joy. I don't know much about this as a disorder but I do know our brain does pull horrible tricks on us to makes us eat while in starvation mode. My rule is never go to bed hungry. Eat the majority of your daily calories in the evening. Everyone sleeps better, and lowers stress hormones when we go to bed in a fed state versus a semi/starvation state. Opposite of the myth, eating late does not make us fat.
I'm really sorry for you and I hope you find an answer.

mrjason

Thank you everybody for your encouragement and support. I wish it was as easy as "just don't do it", but that's the goal.

SO....

I've stopped buying the bad stuff. I just stopped. It was hard. I was in Walgreens yesterday and the addictions were calling me. Chocolate rasins, m and m's, etc. I fought it and instead bought Melatonin and a couple of "full bars".

Earlier in the day I decided to google my behaviors and came up with a ton of mentions for "NES", Night Eating Syndrome. It impacts around 1% of the population and every thing that they had listed fit me to a T. (50% of my calories after dinner, carb and sugar binging, can't focus on anyrhing but getting my "fix"). University of Penn is doing a research study but I don't live there. Either way, it IS a real thing.

I figure that melatonin may help me stay asleep and the full bar may help me feel full and help "take the edge off". I budgeted my calories for 1/2 of a bar before I ended the day.

Sure enough, I work up, went to the cabinet, ate half the bar, took the pill and went back to bed.

It was only one night but its a start.
Going to go hit the elliptical. I;ll keep updating.
thanks

mrjason

Night 2. Valium and Melatonin...... not a great mix. Was up and down all night. WEIRD dreams. Couldn't wake up in the am. I THINK I had some bread in the middle of the night. Not 100% sure. We'll see what tonight holds. I'm afraid to sleep. Book coming from Amazon on Wednesday or sooner. Hopefully that will help.

lloydrt

good luck jason, were all rooting for you. I ve heard about this behavior before, some people eat while they are asleep, some walk, i.e, sleep walking/walkers...
good luck, I really hope you can beat this. Best wishes, Lloyd

mrjason

Thanks Lloyd. Last night was just melatonin. I was able to get myself to a Full Bar and some water and then back to bed. Maybe this is the trick, at least till I get the book from the doctors at U Penn.

jerseygirl777

Nights are my weaknesses... I think mostly because I am home longer. I can have a great day and blow it by night. We just have to be aware of this and try to retrain our minds!