Sleep VS Eating

Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

Replies

  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    Absolutely. Without proper sleep, I find myself reaching for foods that are higher in sugar and calories for energy. My body tends to crave very carb-heavy foods on days like that and never seems satisfied.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    I took a little peek at your diary. It looks like you bought some chocolate milk. Could you be one of those people that is highly sensitive to caffeine? I do not drink anything caffeinated or with chocolate 6 hours before sleep.
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
    Your body definitely needs to sleep. If you're not sleeping properly it's going to throw you off and eating is going to be your body's way of compensating for the recovery that comes from sleep. Same thing happens to me once in awhile I have one of those nights for one reason or another we're I don't sleep right and I only go on a couple hours to sleep I get hungry as hell the following day.

    To put things in perspective I saw a documentary one time about Navy SEALs Hell Week training. Basically what happens over 5 days they might get 5 to 8 hours of sleep over those 5 days. The instructor say the way they combat the exhaustion because they don't sleep is they constantly eat huge quantities of food. Sometimes over 8,000 calories a day
  • Zipp237
    Zipp237 Posts: 255 Member
    For starters, log your foods in 24 hour periods. When the clock changes to midnight, log the next day and no matter when you sleep, log everything eaten during that 24 hours on that day. When your sleep is wacky, it's just much easier. Second, sleep is important for a variety of reasons and we have to assume it's important for more reasons than we know. But even what we know tells us we NEED sleep. Do your best to get all you can. Ideally, you're sleeping all the way through a night and waking before the alarm goes off.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Yes yes yes!! When I've had a crappy nights sleep I'm always a botomless tip the next day. And unfortunately it's not healthy low calories items I'm craving, it's usually sugary cereals and junk type foods. I guess my body is screaming out for energy.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    I took a little peek at your diary. It looks like you bought some chocolate milk. Could you be one of those people that is highly sensitive to caffeine? I do not drink anything caffeinated or with chocolate 6 hours before sleep.

    How does chocolate milk impact sleep? Or contain caffeine?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
    Same here... bad night = hungrier and more likely to go for the not filling carbs. Even worse when I'm up earlier than usual, then I get hungry earlier and it just goes downhill from there.

    Sleep is so important!
  • sisterlilbunny
    sisterlilbunny Posts: 691 Member
    I took a little peek at your diary. It looks like you bought some chocolate milk. Could you be one of those people that is highly sensitive to caffeine? I do not drink anything caffeinated or with chocolate 6 hours before sleep.

    How does chocolate milk impact sleep? Or contain caffeine?

    Chocolate contains caffeine. An average 8 oz. glass of chocolate milk (250 ml) has 2 to 7 mg of caffeine.
  • caroldavison332
    caroldavison332 Posts: 864 Member
    lack of sleep stresses your body to the point that you produce stress hormones ?gherin? that make you hungry. How about a bite of full fat dairy cheese to help you sleep.
  • frankiesgirlie
    frankiesgirlie Posts: 667 Member
    Archercc wrote: »
    Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

    Is this a short term problem?
    Do you see it resolving itself in the near future?
    Have you found yourself eating in the middle of the night, in a desperate attempt to try to relax yourself so that you will fall asleep?

    The reason I ask, and I'm not trying to scare any one, that's for sure, but I had a sleep issue early this year where for 3 months I slept less than 3 hours per night. I would eat in the middle of the night to try to go back to sleep. Sometimes I would remember it. Sometimes I wouldn't remember and would find evidence in the way of wrappers and food remnants in the morning.

    I gained back every pound I lost last year in those 3 months as didn't start to lose again until I saw a sleep specialist at got the the bottom of the problem.

    Maybe this is not you, and I hope it's not, but just thought I'd ask.

    Good luck to you hon. Hope you get much needed sleep sooner rather than later.
  • Archercc
    Archercc Posts: 37 Member
    Archercc wrote: »
    Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

    Is this a short term problem?
    Do you see it resolving itself in the near future?
    Have you found yourself eating in the middle of the night, in a desperate attempt to try to relax yourself so that you will fall asleep?

    The reason I ask, and I'm not trying to scare any one, that's for sure, but I had a sleep issue early this year where for 3 months I slept less than 3 hours per night. I would eat in the middle of the night to try to go back to sleep. Sometimes I would remember it. Sometimes I wouldn't remember and would find evidence in the way of wrappers and food remnants in the morning.

    I gained back every pound I lost last year in those 3 months as didn't start to lose again until I saw a sleep specialist at got the the bottom of the problem.

    Maybe this is not you, and I hope it's not, but just thought I'd ask.

    Good luck to you hon. Hope you get much needed sleep sooner rather than later.

    Mostly it is adjusting to a different sleep pattern, I spent 13 years working a split 2nd/3rd shift (went in at 6P off at 2A) and went to sleep around 5A-6A, About 17 months ago I quite my job and became a stay at home dad. For the first 7 months my wife worked only 2nd shift so I could keep a very similar sleep pattern, since we moved though she has worked 2-3 mornings a week so I can't sleep till noon like I used to, which means falling asleep around 4 or 5 and getting up at 7, maybe 8 if my toddler was up late.

    I can (if I force a reset) go about 2 weeks sleeping 11P until 7A, but then my body tries to revert to the hours it knows and within a week I am back to being up all night.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Archercc wrote: »
    Archercc wrote: »
    Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

    Is this a short term problem?
    Do you see it resolving itself in the near future?
    Have you found yourself eating in the middle of the night, in a desperate attempt to try to relax yourself so that you will fall asleep?

    The reason I ask, and I'm not trying to scare any one, that's for sure, but I had a sleep issue early this year where for 3 months I slept less than 3 hours per night. I would eat in the middle of the night to try to go back to sleep. Sometimes I would remember it. Sometimes I wouldn't remember and would find evidence in the way of wrappers and food remnants in the morning.

    I gained back every pound I lost last year in those 3 months as didn't start to lose again until I saw a sleep specialist at got the the bottom of the problem.

    Maybe this is not you, and I hope it's not, but just thought I'd ask.

    Good luck to you hon. Hope you get much needed sleep sooner rather than later.

    Mostly it is adjusting to a different sleep pattern, I spent 13 years working a split 2nd/3rd shift (went in at 6P off at 2A) and went to sleep around 5A-6A, About 17 months ago I quite my job and became a stay at home dad. For the first 7 months my wife worked only 2nd shift so I could keep a very similar sleep pattern, since we moved though she has worked 2-3 mornings a week so I can't sleep till noon like I used to, which means falling asleep around 4 or 5 and getting up at 7, maybe 8 if my toddler was up late.

    I can (if I force a reset) go about 2 weeks sleeping 11P until 7A, but then my body tries to revert to the hours it knows and within a week I am back to being up all night.

    Wow that sounds terrible. I wish i remembered the name of it, but there is a medication that's available over the counter here that doesn't make you fall asleep, but helps you stay asleep. It's crazy expensive, which is why i never tried it, Maybe ask your doctor if he knows of something that will help. Or go to your health food shop, there are plenty of natural remedies that may help you.
  • Shana67
    Shana67 Posts: 680 Member
    Yes, when I don't get enough sleep, everything suffers, including my diet and my exercise. I get up at 5am for my workout, and I am super, super religious about getting in bed by 8:30p and (hopefully) sleeping by 9.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
    Yeah when I'm tired I just want to stuff carbs in my face. Period.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,905 Member
    edited July 2016
    I worked 2nd shift or graveyard for 25 years. I'm now a normal sleeper, go to bed at 9PM, get up at 5AM.

    I think you just have to force yourself to lay down at a normal toddler-friendly bedtime. Don't drink alcohol, stay off the computer after 6PM, start a wind-down process right after you put the baby down. Your biorhythms aren't broken, but you're going to have to be consistent for a while. Maybe stay up for 24 hours to get it started, then just stick to it. It's more habit than biorhythm for me.

    If I stay up past 9:30, I start eating and then don't go to bed and I can't stay asleep, either. If I eat after 7PM, I wake up at 2-3AM and have a hard time going back to sleep. I have to have an early dinner (between 3-5) in order to sleep through the night. It helped me with weight loss to go to bed before 10PM, I was able to regulate my food much better.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Archercc wrote: »
    Archercc wrote: »
    Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

    Is this a short term problem?
    Do you see it resolving itself in the near future?
    Have you found yourself eating in the middle of the night, in a desperate attempt to try to relax yourself so that you will fall asleep?

    The reason I ask, and I'm not trying to scare any one, that's for sure, but I had a sleep issue early this year where for 3 months I slept less than 3 hours per night. I would eat in the middle of the night to try to go back to sleep. Sometimes I would remember it. Sometimes I wouldn't remember and would find evidence in the way of wrappers and food remnants in the morning.

    I gained back every pound I lost last year in those 3 months as didn't start to lose again until I saw a sleep specialist at got the the bottom of the problem.

    Maybe this is not you, and I hope it's not, but just thought I'd ask.

    Good luck to you hon. Hope you get much needed sleep sooner rather than later.

    Mostly it is adjusting to a different sleep pattern, I spent 13 years working a split 2nd/3rd shift (went in at 6P off at 2A) and went to sleep around 5A-6A, About 17 months ago I quite my job and became a stay at home dad. For the first 7 months my wife worked only 2nd shift so I could keep a very similar sleep pattern, since we moved though she has worked 2-3 mornings a week so I can't sleep till noon like I used to, which means falling asleep around 4 or 5 and getting up at 7, maybe 8 if my toddler was up late.

    I can (if I force a reset) go about 2 weeks sleeping 11P until 7A, but then my body tries to revert to the hours it knows and within a week I am back to being up all night.
    http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/discomfort-15/better-sleep/adjust-sleep-cycle
    https://sleepfoundation.org/ask-the-expert/electronics-the-bedroom
    Get exercise and sunshine in the morning.
    Stay away from computer and tv screens for a few hours before bed.
    Key all distractions out of the bedroom.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    Archercc wrote: »
    Archercc wrote: »
    Has anyone else had a hard/impossible time keeping their diet/count when their sleep schedule gets messed up? Due to stress and an up coming vacation my sleep pattern is wrecked (3 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon right now) it's been this way for about a week now, and nearly every day I have been on the line or over with my count. Granted right now going over won't kill my diet (set at dropping 2 pounds a week) but I feel (mentally) terrible about going over.

    Is this a short term problem?
    Do you see it resolving itself in the near future?
    Have you found yourself eating in the middle of the night, in a desperate attempt to try to relax yourself so that you will fall asleep?

    The reason I ask, and I'm not trying to scare any one, that's for sure, but I had a sleep issue early this year where for 3 months I slept less than 3 hours per night. I would eat in the middle of the night to try to go back to sleep. Sometimes I would remember it. Sometimes I wouldn't remember and would find evidence in the way of wrappers and food remnants in the morning.

    I gained back every pound I lost last year in those 3 months as didn't start to lose again until I saw a sleep specialist at got the the bottom of the problem.

    Maybe this is not you, and I hope it's not, but just thought I'd ask.

    Good luck to you hon. Hope you get much needed sleep sooner rather than later.

    Mostly it is adjusting to a different sleep pattern, I spent 13 years working a split 2nd/3rd shift (went in at 6P off at 2A) and went to sleep around 5A-6A, About 17 months ago I quite my job and became a stay at home dad. For the first 7 months my wife worked only 2nd shift so I could keep a very similar sleep pattern, since we moved though she has worked 2-3 mornings a week so I can't sleep till noon like I used to, which means falling asleep around 4 or 5 and getting up at 7, maybe 8 if my toddler was up late.

    I can (if I force a reset) go about 2 weeks sleeping 11P until 7A, but then my body tries to revert to the hours it knows and within a week I am back to being up all night.

    Melatonin is supposed to help one's circadian rhythms, a problem with which sounds like your issue. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-disorders/role-melatonin-circadian-rhythm-sleep-wake-cycle

    I take it to help me fall asleep and prefer sublingual; my mother the not. It's very inexpensive, and no hungover feeling. Source Naturals, Melatonin, Orange Flavored Sublingual, 1 mg, 100 Tablets $4.73.

  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    I took a little peek at your diary. It looks like you bought some chocolate milk. Could you be one of those people that is highly sensitive to caffeine? I do not drink anything caffeinated or with chocolate 6 hours before sleep.

    How does chocolate milk impact sleep? Or contain caffeine?

    Chocolate contains caffeine. An average 8 oz. glass of chocolate milk (250 ml) has 2 to 7 mg of caffeine.

    The average cup of coffee has 95mg of caffeine. 2mg will not be noticeable!
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
    arditarose wrote: »
    Yeah when I'm tired I just want to stuff carbs in my face. Period.

    ^^same.
  • mds438
    mds438 Posts: 18 Member
    arditarose wrote: »
    Yeah when I'm tired I just want to stuff carbs in my face. Period.

    Yep. Same here as well