Insomnia & night eating

alittlelife14 · July 2016

Just curious any insight or personal experience stories. I have been suffering with insomnia for the past year, moreso in on and off bouts. Before I am able to attend my earliest available sleep center appointment in September I am curious if anyone has their own insight about this. Since I have entered into the binge and restrict cycle my sleep has also taken a decline in terms of normalcy. Through this issue I have started and stopped stimulants (Vyvanse, EC stack for some time, etc), started and stopped cig smoking (a few months), and also just had fluctuating high amounts of caffeine intake in my diet. I have had a great deal of stress and I know days of under eating too. I feel I have now gotten to a point though where I am stimulant free as of about a month and a half, no smoking and my sleeping remains terrible.

I wake essentially EVERY night at 3am almost on the dot. Most times it's an abrupt wake up which jolts me awake and hunger usually accompanied and I end up eating either 100 cal popcorn, but sometimes I binge and over eat stupid crap and of course that's not what I want. I want to sleep through the night land go back to normal so bad. I have tried Trazadone, Benadryl, melatonin, Resteril. Any insight?

thank you.

kommodevaran · July 2016

You need to get enough food in during the day. Don't keep stupid crap in the house. Also make sure you move every day. Wind down, turn off TV, computer and mobile phone and stop eating and drinking two hours before bed. Once you are in bed, don't leave it unless you need to use the bathroom, and go straigth back to bed after that. This takes determination, but you won't suffer. It will become habit after a while, and then start to feel normal.

beccag28 · July 2016

This exact situation happened to me when I had a stressful year of study. My sleep only returned to normal after I reduced my stress. You could do some relaxing things before bed to reduce your stress hormones.

MoveitlikeManda · July 2016

I have serious insomnia where I can 3/4 days with no sleep at all and then on "good nights" i fall asleep around 4am and only sleep in blocks of 20-30mins before being awake for an hour or so before drifting off again.
it SUCKS (especially with 5 kids aged 8months to 8years) even my meds dont help me sleep.

I have the rule that I dont eat after 7pm, simple as that. I drink water, maybe have a cup of tea (but not after 9pm) and if I feel very desperate will have a chewing gum.

there is no real advise I can give as im struggling with my insomnia due to PTSD and its frankly getting worse not better.
only thing I can say is the above, pick a time that is your cut off time and be determined, you will soon get used to not eating at night.

the staying in bed unless you need a wee is also very good advise but you really have to make your self, its the only way around it.........only you let yourself get up and eat.........only you cant stop yourself from doing it

MoveitlikeManda · July 2016

also get in to a routine thats the same every night.

say 8.30pm turn tv off, go have a long soak in a hot bath, then read a book for a little while or lay on your bed listening to gental music or a story cd.
have a warm drink (milk etc) to help you relax.

doing the same thing every night and (trying) to wake every morning at the same time can also help.

you dont say what time you do go to bed/sleep before waking at 3am, or how long it then takes to get back to sleep?

dmt4641 · July 2016

I do not have the issues with binging/restricting, but I do get night wake ups at 2 or 3 where I can't go to sleep for 2-3 hours afterwards. Generally I get them for weeks at a time when I am either cutting calories or stressed about a particular situation that I am running through my head. Some things that I have found to help.

1) eat enough calories during the day, back loading some towards bedtime. I cannot do a big deficit. I have a bigger afternoon snack (big smoothie with protein powder, fruit, spinach, fat of either coconut oil or PB), dinner around 500 calorie, and cottage cheese mixed with peanut butter before bed. The slow release protein plus fat before bed has really seemed to help.

2) if I wake up and I am hungry, for some reason carbs are the only thing that helps. So I just have a small bowl of cereal.

3) I try to stay off electronics for at least 30 minutes before bedtime and just read a book. The worst is when I am on the internet spinning my wheels about whatever issues I am worried about, I almost always wake up in the middle of the night. If you are worried about binging and spend all night online looking up things about it, you will probably wake up thinking about it at 3 am.

4) If I wake up in the middle of the night and I can tell I will be up for a while, I don't go on the internet. I immediately eat my snack if I am hungry and go read a book. If my mind is on overdrive thinking about something, I get a notepad out and write down what I am thinking about, any solutions or steps I can take. Writing down a plan can sometimes put my mind at ease. If it is something I can't control, putting things in perspective and writing that down.

I hope this helps. I still suffer from this every once in a while but eating enough and stress reduction has helped.

healthygreek · July 2016

No caffeine!!!! That helped me tremendously!

minniestar55 · July 2016

Yes...I have to switch to decaf by about 3pm or I have sleep trouble.

You might really benefit from yoga for stress relief, relaxation & insomnia. There's some good free stuff on YouTube, I really strongly suggest you consider giving this a go for at least a couple of weeks. It can't hurt & may help you.

Here's a nice one:

https://youtu.be/NUGOgn3Llrw

cmriverside · July 2016

When your hormones are out of whack, so follows your sleep. Binge/restrict cycles are really bad for your endocrine system (hormones.) Do you feel you are in eating disorder territory? I mean, it certainly sounds like it.

Can you eat a normal amount of calories, say whatever MFP suggests? Do that for two weeks, if it's food-based hormone disruption, that may be long enough to help reset.

Restricting food too much or eating too much (especially in the late evening) always affects my sleep. 3AM. I hate that time.

alittlelife14 · July 2016

Everyone's insight and feedback has been very helpful so far. Thank you. I plan to foremost cut out caffeine after the 11am hour, no screen time in bed prior to sleep, and try to relax and read maybe for a half hour before bed. I know I am for sure having a lot of anxiety. The hard part is the adrenalin type rush I have at the 3am hour and it's scary. It makes me fear sleep knowing I am going to be up then like clockwork and need to fight the urge to eat.

charlenekapf · July 2016

I have been there done that. I think I overeat now in fear of waking up hungry in the middle of the night. happened when i first started dieting and was losing weight quickly. now anytime i get serious about weight loss and cut my calories, i wake up every hour or so, wired and the next day sucks. this has made me opt for better sleep and a lot of excess weight as i couldn't take the sleep deprivation anymore. i have no solution

i agree with dmt4641's suggestion of less of a deficit so your body isn't shocked if that is indeed what is happening. protein+fat before bed to stabilize blood sugar too may help.

alittlelife14 · July 2016

Thank you very much. Yeah, it is very hard when you want to lose weight and such and the deficit ends up working against you and your body needs which are hard to fully and specifically know to an extent where you're still at a deficit but not enough to keep you waking up at periodic hours through the night leaving you feeling like crap the next day and continuing the deprivation cycle. Going to increase protein and fat and try to cut out meals close to bed as well as decrease stress which is easier said than done as you know.

dubird · July 2016

If you know you're going to be up at 3 am, put a snack in the fridge or pantry for yourself that fits into your daily calories. That way, if you get up hungry, you can grab something ready to go, eat it standing up, then go back to bed. You won't binge if your snack is ready go, and maybe by staying standing and not sitting to eat, it'll be easier to get back into bed.

I would also suggest talking to your doctor about the insomnia. If it's just being caused by stress and anxiety, there are methods you can use to relieve the stress, but if it's bad enough that you're being awakened by adrenaline, it might be something worse and you should get it checked out. At the very least, you'll be able to eliminate any serious issues that way, which can actually help the stress level.

Insomnia & night eating

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