Sleep Eating!

Did anybody see the Primetime Medical Mysteries show last night or was everyone watching the Olympics?

Anyway, they had a really good segment on about sleep eating, which I have been doing for years.

They were actually able to film people who would get out of bed, totally asleep, and get all kinds of food from the kitchen.  Some would eat right there and others took the food back to bed with them.  I'm the latter. 

I walk up many mornings with remnants of whatever I've found during the night.  I've even found candy that I insist my father hide.  When I'm awake, I have no clue where that candy is hidden....But last night apparently I found his Hershey Kisses!

According to the drs. this condition is a valid neurological issue and is hereditary!

They've found that it can be somewhat controlled by various medications including some meds that are primarily used to stop seizures. 

I don't know which is worse, sleep eating or putting some kind of drug into my system that could have who knows what kind of side effects.

Oh, well, just thought I'd share!

I didn't see that show, but I do remember seeing some show several years ago where one woman would get up and eat raw bacon dipped in mayonnaise.

Saw it!!! It was pretty crazy. I feel really awful for those woman but there has to be a way to stop them like locking the fridge or bedroom door??? Or how about only keeping healthy food in the fridge and cupboards? It would've been awesome if they gorged on carrots and celery!!

I once had a roommate who would sleep eat... and she would usually eat the food in the fridge/cupboard that wasn't hers! There were times she'd woken up with a half of a pie in her bed, chunks of corn tortillas.... all kinds of weird stuff. We started putting everything up in the higher cupboards to prevent it, and it did slow it down a little.

My husband does this. Usually it is something like cookies or crackers. Since we haven't kept either of those in the house for a while, he's stopped. Weird. He also has other sleep abnormalities and can be very entertaining in his sleep, like the time he was singing, "Hey, Jude." Once he walked out into -24F weather and let the door lock behind him, wearing nothing but boxers!! If his neighbor hadn't been awake, it could have been deadly.

But I didn't know sleep eating was a specific disorder!

locking up the food doesn't seem to be an answer either.  The show went on to say that some sleep eaters will eat whatever they find appetizing in their sleeping state.  People have been known to eat bars of soap, elmer's glue, and just about anything else.

I know for a fact that my younger daughter inherited this problem from me because I've seen her doing it...Oh well, at least she didn't inherit my shortness or wgt issues too!

I seem to do more sleep eating when I'm under additional stress.

My husband did this and several other wierd "sleeping" things, including chasing imaginary animals. We have found that now that he is on meds for high blood pressure, these thing have almost stopped completely. Something to do with the brain miss-firing because of the pressure.

Something to think about!

Original Post by beansmommy:

My husband did this and several other wierd "sleeping" things, including chasing imaginary animals. We have found that now that he is on meds for high blood pressure, these thing have almost stopped completely. Something to do with the brain miss-firing because of the pressure.

Something to think about!

 Wish BP meds were my answer but I'm already on that, although an extremely low dosage.  I honestly don't know where my father has those Hershey Kisses hidden but I found them in my sleep last night.  He wouldn't tell me where they were but he moved them again after last night's episode.  Let's see what happens tonight! 

I don't think this is exactly the condition (or is it?), but I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and grab a snack.  I'm very sleepy and tend to have only the most vague memories of doing this upon waking in the morning, but I don't gorge or have other unusual sleep habits.  Usually I grab a Fiber One yogurt, an energy bar, 100 calorie pack of something or other, or a banana (foods that are easy to eat when the brain is mostly asleep).   It doesn't interfere with weight loss/maintenance, so I just figure it's my body self-correcting its need for more calories/nutrients.  Does anyone who saw this on TV or who has seen this before think I'm experiencing true sleep eating?  I don't really see it as a problem (aside from eating after brushing teeth), though I can certainly understand how it could be a serious one.

When I was dieting a lot (I lost 35 last year) I used to occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and have a small snack, like half of a granola bar.  Over this past summer I was really stressed out and one night I woke up around 2pm and decided I was hungry so I went to grab a snack and ended up eating an entire meal (PB and banana sandwich, candy).  

In the weeks/months following it continued to happen more and more frequently until I was sleep eating almost every night!  And the strangest part is I would never remember getting out of bed and walking into the kitchen...or even preparing the food or eating the first few bites.  By the time I gain consciousness I am already almost finished a sandwich or on my second cupcake (I always eat high-fat and/or high-carb foods like PB, chocolate, honey, bread, cake, etc...)

To try and correct this I've listened to meditation tapes, closely monitored my calorie intake to make sure I was getting enough food each day, moved/hidden food, placed low-cal options right on the counter so they were easy to access, locked doors, taken sleeping pills, and even tried tying myself into bed (extreme, i know)....but so far NOTHING has worked and sleeping pills just make me less-conscious when I wake up so I usually eat more!

So far I've gained about 12 pounds and I'm miserable about it :(