night eating

I'm able to control my calorie intake pretty well during waking hours. However, I keep waking up in the middle of the night to eat. I'm half-asleep so my self-control is not really there. I've tried eating a light snack right before I go to sleep but that hasn't solved it. It isn't helped by the fact that my roommates stock our place with junk food.

Any suggestions?

1. Maybe you aren't eating enough during the day and your body really wants to compensate for it

2. If you're hungry no matter how much you eat during the day, you should eat slightly lighter meals for most of the day thus lessening the damage if you know you're gonna eat at night

do you do the big breakfast/small dinner thing? i find that leaves me hungery in the evening, so i spread my calories (as evenly as possible) between 5-6 "meals". keeps me going all day and lets me sleep all night.

So one time when I was running about 70 - 100 miles a week I apparently wasn't getting enough carbs.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a half-eaten powerbar in my mouth.

Original Post by kisteel:

So one time when I was running about 70 - 100 miles a week I apparently wasn't getting enough carbs.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a half-eaten powerbar in my mouth.

 Haha, I'm sorry but I have nothing to really add to this post except that this comment literally made me laugh, out loud, at work.  It usually takes a lot to make me laugh like that, so I just thought i'd let everyone know.

no my breakfast is usually about 300 calories. I try to stay under 3000 for the day (6-1, 209, exercise pretty heavily 6 days a week). As one person suggested it might be best to just adjust my normal intake to compensate for the night eating. Though that isn't ideal, but if nothing else works...

did you find any way to stop this night eating cause im struggling with the same exact problem as you do and i hate it

You might want to check out information on Wikipedia and elsewhere on "night eating syndrome" and "sleep related eating disorder".  Sounds like you may have some symptoms in common with the night eating syndrome.  People with more extreme symptoms benefit from medical treatment.

Another thought is also to consider increasing your intake of protein for your last meal or snack, since protein tends to supress hunger hormones more effectively than other foods.  You should make sure your carbohydrates are complex carbs that take longer to digest than simple carbs such as fruit, as the longer digestion time could help you sleep through the night.

Good luck!