Problematic Late Night Eating

I've had, for many years, the habit (or compulsion?) of eating excessively late at night 10:00p.m. or later.  During the day I have no problem with getting hungry or snacking between meals.  My meals are well balanced and I rarely skip, unless I become very busy at work and have to put off lunch.  I'm not bothered or feel really hungry.  During the weekends, when I'm not busy I also don't feel compelled to eat outside of meals during the day.  But in the evening, watch out!  I feel hungry and when I'm full, don't stop eating.  I'm frequently at the refrigerator or the cupboard.

Does anyone else experience this?  Any tips or insight?

Thanks

I have the exact same proplem. I hope someone has a way to stop it. I get up several times in the middle of the night and continually eat. I had to have my roomate hide food in his bedroom that was really bad. It still didn't stop me. I found other things to eat and I just ate more of it. I tried sleeping pills and melatonin but I still wake up to do it and if I don't eat I can't go back to sleep. I am not hungry, I just want to eat. Distractions don't work such as reading, puzzle books, computer things, watching T.V., I drove 25 minutes to go for a walk. This was at midnight. I got back and ate more than if I would have just stayed home! If I don't have snack food, then I make my dinner food. It sucks. I have things under complete control all day then it is alll night trance syndrome. It is unstoppable.

I hope someone has a helpful suggestion to stop this bad habit.

I am also a night snacker, so I try to find low calorie things to munch on that take a while to eat.  Some of my favorites are 100 calorie packs of popcorn, baby carrots, dry cereal (like kashi golean or fiber one), raw green beans.  I know it's not quite the same as that bag of chips or brownie, but it makes you full.  I also drink caffeine free tea at night and it usually takes care of my "hunger".

oh i am so bad for this too!

I call it the nibbleees, and I just can't stay away from the cereal box.

I tried drinking tons of herbal tea but it's chewing I really want.

So I sometimes chew gum or brush my teeth and use mouthwash, that makes everything taste gross.

And sometimes I just give in and go for the 100 cal serving items.

Thanks for the tips.

I wonder if eating more protein earlier in the day might help?  I usually don't have much protein for breakfast (i.e. just the milk in my cereal) and have protein later in the day.  Turkey or tuna at lunch and then chicken or fish for dinner. 

The water or herbal tea route helps, but I wake up later at night to use the bathroom.  I've also found that smoking a cigarette helps, but I really don't want to go down that route!

Hi true-lue, and everybody else on here.  I used to have this problem also, for me it was a big bags of chips or doritos and most anything else I could shove in. I can eat a lot of food in the evening watching t.v.  I started eating higher calories during the day and its magically disappeared.  I was in shock at first, and my hubby couldn't believe it either.  I eat about 1500 cals a day ( different for everyone )  I divide it out into five three hundred calorie meals.  I try to stay away from process carbs, ( sugary stuff ) but I pretty much eat what I want.  Don't get me wrong I still get a little hungry but now an apple or an orange will take care of that, or even a diet pop.  Its been three weeks now that I haven't snacked at night. Or even really wanted to, and no more waking up in the middle of the night.  So maybe if you up your calories a bit during the day this problem will go away for you too.