sleep-eating

mzmoonlight
mzmoonlight Posts: 160
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone here do this? Its something I have done for years but does get worse when I am stressed/depressed I have noticed. Basically I will be really good all day and go to bed not hungry but either when I am on the brink of sleep or while I am asleep (I wake up but am only semi-conscious) I will get up, go into the kitchen and eat. All control goes out of the window. I try to make sure I dont have anything too damaging to hand and like to have a good supply of carrots available as I tend to munch on these. But lately they havent been enough in the night and I have gone and made oats or (like last night) ate a tin of sardines. I've tried everything I can to put a stop to this from eating before bed to making sure I am hydrated enough but nothing works and its really slowing my progress down (particularly at the moment while I am ill and not exercising).

Replies

  • lilykarger
    lilykarger Posts: 25
    woah this happenns to me too.. especially when i am really really tired
  • summersmi
    summersmi Posts: 50 Member
    This is a sleep walking related disorder. The best advise I can give you is see your Doctor and probably a specialist. Good Luck.
  • mzmoonlight
    mzmoonlight Posts: 160
    Even though I am semi-awake? I seem to know what I am doing but just have to do it anyway and nothing else matters except for the food. My thinking is its an emotional/psychological disorder more than a sleep one because if I sleep at someone elses home I dont get up and raid their cupboards, and recently I had to fast for a blood test and that was enough to stop me. Plus I have been struggling emotionally lately and its gotten worse in this period. I did talk to my health professionals about this ages ago but they were not very interested in helping me. I also suffer from chronic insomnia and take nytol/nyquil and it seems to be worse on those too. My cousin suffers from this too and got her dr to send her to a sleep clinic and the conclusion of a study on her wasnt very helpful, they just said she had something like "emotional anorexia" or something like that and she didnt get any further help.
  • peart47
    peart47 Posts: 25 Member
    I looked this up on the internet and found these pages:

    http://oliciouslife.com/sleep-eating-help/
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/health/07eating.html

    I think the most important thing to do is to find the right doctor, keeping going to doctors until you find the right one. It seems like in all the articles, people took meds and that helped. You are not alone girl! Do your research and find the right doctor!
  • mzmoonlight
    mzmoonlight Posts: 160
    I looked this up on the internet and found these pages:

    http://oliciouslife.com/sleep-eating-help/
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/health/07eating.html

    I think the most important thing to do is to find the right doctor, keeping going to doctors until you find the right one. It seems like in all the articles, people took meds and that helped. You are not alone girl! Do your research and find the right doctor!

    Thanks for these. I have had a good read through, and read some further sites and it does look like I have a disorder. Interestingly it says some insomnia meds can make this worse and its definitely worse with nytol/nyquil but its the only thing that works against my insomnia so I am reluctant to try this.

    I keep getting ill and have had blood tests and everything is normal. My doctor thinks depression/stress is what is making me ill and wants me to go on an ssri. I havent agreed yet but according to some sites these can help with the sleep eating so maybe its time to give it some more consideration...

    The page that said people will eat anything that comes to hand is so right. I have been known to pour milk on oats and eat it without cooking it, for example. It is also poignant that it says it doesnt happen when in REM. Because I will keep waking up from about midnight until 3 or 4am and then I'll sleep deeply and not move until morning. I'm guessing this is my REM sleep period, when I also have insane dreams.

    I'm going to speak to my doctor about this again. thanks.
  • techno9722
    techno9722 Posts: 2
    I have the exact same problem that you do, to a T!!! I am semi-awake, and I jump out of bed around 3-4am. And I go right to the frig. I can't seem to control it. My husband started putting locks on the cabinets and frig at night so when I would "semi-awake" and go down stair I would be like "darn, I can't eat" and then I would just go back to sleep. What is weird is it happens most every night, and then every once in awhile it won't have a day or two, and I can't seem to put my finger on what I did differently that day. It started about 2 years ago. It's the weirdest thing!!! I do take benadyl but I don't think that has anything to do with it. And my doctor didn't seem concerned about it. Have you heard anything else about from your doctor????
This discussion has been closed.

Categories