Nighttime Eating syndrome treatment.

For years and years I have had problems sleeping.  I tend to wake up two or three times a night, at which time I am awake, but cannot seem to NOT eat something.  Usually bread.  I have become aware of an illness called Nighttime eating syndrome, and have gotten a prescription for Zoloft, which does not seem to be helping.  I can control my eating during the day, but it seems much less so at night.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Do you wake up hungry at night or is it just habitual eating? If you wake up hungry it could be because your blood sugars are out of whack and you should look at eating foods that stabalize your blood sugar and avoiding foods that spike/crash it.

If it's habitual ... I dunno ?

are you eating enough during the day to meet your caloric needs? are you restricting carbs during the day? 

This can be nothing but habit and habits can be easy to get into.  You need to not allow yourself to eat, you'll be surprised how quick you can change this.  Or tell yourself if you have to have something that you can only have something like a piece of fruit or something that you don't care much about.  Also make sure you're not hungry before you go to bed.  I have almost allowed myself to start this but knew it would be a very bad idea.  It just takes you making a resolve to not do it.  It's not any different then breaking any bad habit.

I make sure I have something before I go to bed.  I love vanilla yogurt with fresh or frozen blueberries.  This has become my favorite bedtime snack.  Just do something to break the routine and it will get easier.  

You can do this and you will sleep much better without all the interruptions.

I believe night-time eating syndrome applies to people who eat while sleep-walking, not people who wake up at night hungry.

I suggest you eat more during the day if you can't sleep through the night without waking and eating.

I go through phases where I wake up and eat in the middle of the night too. Usually chocolate biscuits!

It's mind over matter really - I leave a post-it note on my bedside saying 'NO!' when I wake up and see this, it usually helps persuade me to go back to sleep.

Hope this helps!

I had this problem for over two years.

It started out that I ate because I was restricting too heavily during the day (i.e. Eating 1500 calories, and doing 2.5 hour cardio work outs, etc)
Then, it just got to be habit. I too, always went for bread, or peanut butter and bananas.

So, I finally got fed up and did something about it. It may sound extreme, but I found that if I can't GET to the kitchen, I can't eat anything. So, I block off the hallways using a "web" of sorts, made out of christmas wrapping ribbon. I just tape it up before I go to bed, and I have no problems during the night (usually, I'm too disoriented to be able to figure out how to take it down! I did, once, however, run into it, which sucked) But overall, it's worked for me for six months now. You may want to try it.