Can you sleep while hungry?

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oat_bran
oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I often see people say something along the lines "if I used all of my calories of the day, and I'm still hungry I just go to sleep" or "if I'm still hungry after dinner I drink a cup of herbal tea and tell myself that's it for the day" and it blows my mind a little because I find it practically impossible to fall asleep when hungry. Even if I'm just a little peckish, it's really hard to fall asleep. Granted, I struggle with sleep in general and often take at least an hour or even longer to fall asleep even when I'm not hungry, but hunger makes it pretty much impossible. Even if I take a sleeping pill. I am also a little amazed by all the people around me who have dinner at 6-7 and then just don't eat and go to bed 4 hours later.

For the context, I feel hungry no matter what or how I eat when I'm even in a small deficit (even when I eat at maintenance, too, to be honest) so that's a big obstacle to weight loss. I can power through it during the day, but at night it feels like I have to choose between having a deficit that day or getting some sleep. I eat a big dinner right before bed and still struggle quite often. I also often wake up at night, sometimes several times, and need to eat something to be able to fall asleep. I usually always have a carton of unsweetened soy milk in the fridge that I sip on before bed and throughout the night to be able to sleep. Which cancels out any deficit I was able to have that day usually... I often wonder how much of it is due to habit though? I've been considering to try and force myself to just stop eating after 6-7 pm and see if I can get used to sleep while hungry eventually...

I'm not really asking for advice to be honest (because I don't think there's one I haven't heard before), but I'm just wondering how hard most people find it too fall asleep when hungry?

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Replies

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,895 Member
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    Most of the time I can fall asleep just about anywhere and anytime. I've dozed off standing up against a wall in an airport ... in the middle of class ... on a gravel road after many, many, many hours of cycling ...

    On a normal night, I'm usually out within 5 minutes of putting my head on the pillow, usually within about 2-3 minutes. In fact if I'm not asleep after about 7 or 8 minutes, I'm wondering what's wrong.

    So yes, I can fall asleep when hungry.

    However, that said, my last snack is usually about 11 pm and I go to bed somewhere between 12:30 and 1 am. I don't like feeling hungry when I'm trying to finish something important during the time I have the most energy late in the evening.
  • redeve17
    redeve17 Posts: 33 Member
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    @oat_bran , Yes this sounds very much like me, when am on a low calorie diet of about 1000calories a day, I get this effect. Suffice to say, I sleep very well normally but when am hungry, I do struggle a lot with sleep. I think it is just how our body is.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
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    Yes, i have that problem. That’s one of the reasons I eat 4 meals a day. I go to bed about 12. Sometimes I sleep til 8, but sometimes I wake up about 6 am. I don’t really feel hungry, but as soon as I eat, I go back to sleep for a couple of hours, so obviously my body is hungry, even if my mind is not. I’ve been that way all my life.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    I'll vote for 'nope', can't sleep when I am hungry.
  • etherealanwar
    etherealanwar Posts: 465 Member
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    I can fall asleep hungry most of the time unless my stomach is actively growling and I am experiencing hunger pains then I probably couldn't but that never happens to me.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    I can't sleep at all when hungry, and like you, even being a little bit peckish will annoy me enough to keep me awake. Usually I don't need much to satisfy me to get to sleep, but I usually eat within an hour of going to bed so I don't have to deal with potentially being hungry.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    i can't fall asleep hungry so i save calories for a bedtime snack. whole milk hot chocolate. cookie. ice cream. root beer float. etc
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
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    If I'm only a little hungry and I'm very tired, I can go to sleep. If I'm not that tired or if I'm very hungry I can't. If I lie in bed more than an hour, I'll get up and eat a piece of cheese or some bread and cheese. That will usually allow me to fall asleep.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,217 Member
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    IMO if the deficit is set correctly (i.e. not too aggressively) and one's day is planned appropriately going to be hungry is a non-issue. I'm a huge fan of pre-logging as a way of allocating calories throughout the day effectively. As others suggested, manipulating macros can sometimes help with satiety too.
  • sweetbe44
    sweetbe44 Posts: 195 Member
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    I can’t sleep if I’m hungry. I usually have a snack around 9:30 pm. It’s counted for in my day.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    I can go to sleep hungry. I very seldom eat much after lunch. I cannot sleep if, for me, it has been a very low calorie day for some reason. This is one of the reasons the 5:2 plan would never work for me.
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,092 Member
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    I can usually get off to sleep hungry but I’ll wake early the following day ravenous.
  • thelegendofsakura89
    thelegendofsakura89 Posts: 105 Member
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    Hungry? Yes.
    Fasted for 24+ hours? No. I'm wired and sleep for maybe 4 hours total, on and off. It's why I stick to IF instead.
  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,495 Member
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    I cannot fall asleep when hungry, but then I am a night owl forced in to a day schedule and my sleep patterns are VERY fragile! If anything is off in my sleep hygiene, I will be awake for hours staring at the ceiling fan.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,975 Member
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    I can go to bed hungry - not starving, gnaw my own arm off hungry, but I can go to sleep fairly hungry. Do most nights, actually - not seriously hungry, but a little.
  • oat_bran
    oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    Most of the time I can fall asleep just about anywhere and anytime. I've dozed off standing up against a wall in an airport ... in the middle of class ... on a gravel road after many, many, many hours of cycling ...

    On a normal night, I'm usually out within 5 minutes of putting my head on the pillow, usually within about 2-3 minutes. In fact if I'm not asleep after about 7 or 8 minutes, I'm wondering what's wrong.

    So yes, I can fall asleep when hungry.

    However, that said, my last snack is usually about 11 pm and I go to bed somewhere between 12:30 and 1 am. I don't like feeling hungry when I'm trying to finish something important during the time I have the most energy late in the evening.

    You have no idea how jealous I am of you! I don't think I ever "dozed off" in my life past the age of 5 without actually trying to fall asleep.

    And it only takes you 5 minutes? Wow... I have to create eleborate scenarios in my head to distract myself from the fact that I am actually trying to fall asleep and it can take a while, an hour or two easily, during which I usually get progressively hungry and need to get up to have a snack and then try again...

    Don't remember the last time I slept through the night without waking up at least once either...

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