I've been working so hard at eating healthy and keeping a healthy life style. I've made huge changes to how I eat, but I have issues with binge eating. I also suffer from anxiety and take medication for it, I eat when I'm anxious feeling as well.

For breakfast I had 3 hard boiled eggs, a fruit cup for a snack, some lettuce with tuna for lunch, and dinner was veggies and a little bit of meat and cheese at a picnic.

I got home and got a little too friendly with a bag of rice chips, but didn't eat too many. Then I did something that I regret that took me a long time to break the habit of. I ate just before bed, infact I ate a gluten free granola bar in bed as I was falling asleep.

THEN I woke up an hour later and somehow walked myself to the fridge to eat some cheese!

I woke up this morning with these vague memories of eating all this stuff last night.

Is this because I'm on my period or do I have some deeper issues I need to deal with? Eating before bed has always been a problem which I'm usually good about these days, but waking up and eating and going back to bed and barely remembering it?

Does anyone else have experience with something like this?

Did you drink alcohol at the picnic? I used to do stuff like that when I was drinking. Hummm, if all else fails, tie your regenerator doors shut so that it's impossible to open it when you are "sleeping".

No, no alcohol, we were just playing the game of LIFE (the family guy version) and eating the cut up veggies and other stuff. It was fun until we got rained out

I'm wondering if it's my anxiety medication? I don't remember if I took it and I was up at 4 am today not being able to sleep either. I missed it once and woke up at 1 am and showered not understanding that it was 1 am.

The night eating is bad, I can't sleep walk and eat too! :S haha

Maybe I should put something on my fridge to stop me.

Set up a little trap for yourself in front of your door, like some string, or bubblewrap, or if you know any kids with one of those lazer-trip alarms that they sell at toystores. Hopefully, the little jolt would wake you up enough to stop what you're doing and go back to sleep. I hope this gets better for you

The NY Times ran this article on binge eating while sleep walking back in April. You may have to register to read it but it's free and they don't share your email address, so no spam.

Here's a bit:

Sleep eaters “make a beeline for the kitchen” and tend to binge on sugary, high-calorie snacks, sometimes five times a night, said Dr. John W. Winkelman, medical director of the Sleep Health Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Brighton, Mass. Some go for bizarre food combinations like peanut butter and pasta, and even the occasional nail polish or paper.

Consequences of nighttime eating can include injuries like black eyes from walking into a wall or hand cuts from a prep knife, or dental problems from gnawing on frozen food. On a deeper level, many sleep eaters feel depressed, frustrated and ashamed. Upwards of 10 percent of adults suffer from some sort of parasomnia, or sleep disorder, like sleepwalking or night terrors. Some have driven cars or performed inappropriate sexual acts — all while in a sleep-induced fog. About 1 percent, mostly women, raid the refrigerator.

And also:

Sadly, many sleep eaters and others with related disorders suffer for years without telling their doctors because they consider it a personality quirk rather than a medical disorder. They may try all sorts of remedies, from strapping themselves to the bed to hiding food, usually to little or no avail.

Hope this helps...

I have literally no information to offer you on this one. I don't mean to nag, but I definitely recommend seeing a doctor/professional of some sort, because if you're really sleep walking and eating, you could get hurt. You could trip or even eat something that isn't edible!

Maybe you ate something at night because you are starving yourself during the day? I mentally tallied up your total from yesterday and it seems really really low.

I know that when I used to diet (unsuccessfully, I might add) when I was younger, I used to eat JUST LIKE THAT. And, at some point, I would always desperately, uncontrollably binge. I used to wonder what was wrong with me, why I didn't have will power like a "normal person."

There was nothing wrong with me, everything was right with me. The human body is designed to LIVE. It doesn't really understand dieting and it surely doesn't understand deliberately eating so few calories.

I will tell you that this time, I swore no more starving. I don't binge anymore.

It can be the medications.

I would talk to your doctor and make sure you are eating enough during the day. If it continues, install a locking mechanism on your fridge. We have one on our pantry for when the 2 year old used to try to pull the glass jars out onto the tile floor. How complex the lock mechanism has to be depends on how adept you are while sleep eating.

I have one friend who sleep ate on Ambien and a simple toddler sliplock was enough to baffle her in her sleep.

I had a colleague who had been sleep walking since he was a child and he needed to lock up dangerous things with a key and then lock the keys in a lockbox in the garage overnight. (his parents had to install ceiling locks on the doors and windows because as a kid he would sleep walk outdoors)

Ditto. Just wanted to reinforce that.

I use to be a sleepwalker who ate too and it was a common occurrence for me though I believe mine was linked to a lot of emotional issues and stress I was having at the time. I haven't dealt with either issue in almost 2 years, thankfully.


I agree with the ones who asked if you are eating enough during the day? Do you count calories?

I wasn't hungry, I eat like that normally because of my intolerance to gluten. The eggs are 210 calories, the fruit cup was 80, lunch with the tuna salad was about 350 or so because it's almost a full can of tuna and lettuce and dressing, and dinner I estimate at about 300 or so calories. The rice chips were probably 200-300. I also drink the slimquick drink mix throughout the day, it's about 40 calories. It helps with my hunger because I can't eat at work unless on a break, I can only drink so I use that between breaks.

I also had a 100 calorie gluten free bar.

Actually, now that I type that all out, that doesn't seem like a lot. But I did not even feel hungry, I think I might have been set off by the carbs in the rice chips and the bar.

I've had issues with sleep walking in the past, as well as sleep talking. My friends mom has drank chemicals before doing this so that's why I'm concerned.

thesame7lbs, thanks for the article! I'll read into it more when I'm back from the gym. And I should bring this up with my doctor because I'm on anxiety medication as well. This is the first time eatings been involved as well, and when I do do stuff in my sleep it is very rare, the shower incident was months ago.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I do appreciate it


Edit: I was tracking calories through an app on my BlackBerry but stopped, I think I should start again to make sure I am getting enough. I have a variety of different meals I eat, I think this day happened to be most of the low calorie ones at once.