I had a binging dream last night and I woke up really thinking I had actually done it. I dreamed that I was at my parents' house and they had pieces of cake in take-home plastic containers and the cake was just doused with frosting. I dreamed that I was sneaking pieces as fast as I could (they were chocolate) and I was shoving all the frosting into my mouth as quickly as I could. I was making a mess because there was so much frosting and I was getting frosting on the floor and it was smearing all over the place. Then I was starting to freak out that people would see the mess and I was panicking about having to clean up the mess I had made (it was green and blue frosting).

Cake and cupcakes are my ultimate downfall, but I really felt gross after remembering the dream. I used to get those mini-cakes that they sell at WalMart (the ones for 3 or 4 people), hide them under my bed, and hack away at it with a fork for a day or two until it was gone. I just really feel gross and nauseous just thinking about the dream. I love cake so much, but there was just something about this dream that really made it disgusting to me. The dream was about me binging on it, and I think that's what made me feel so gross.

I had a binge dream just the other night. For me, it was handfuls of lukewarm mac and cheese with a crusty, cheesy crumb topping. In the dream, I felt ashamed of being so greedy for the stuff that I was eating it double-fisted, but I also recalled exactly how good it tasted and how the textures felt in my mouth.

The dream was so real that I woke up in a little bit of a panic--then I realized that there was literally no way that I could've eaten this or any other similar food because it doesn't exist in this household. It was actually a huge relief to wake up and realize that I hadn't done this gross thing.

It's probably a good thing that you had that dream. Dreams are a way for your brain to process information and reinforce neural pathways, so if your brain just reinforced the neural pathway of "overeating cake = gross," that can only be good news for your waking state of mind.

Yes! I know what you mean about feeling all of those feelings in your dream ~ when you mentioned feeling guilty, that's how I was feeling, but in my dream it tasted soooo delicious and I couldn't stop. I also felt panicked that someone would see me because I kept peeking around the fridge to see if anyone was walking down the hallway into the kitchen.

Ugh, dreams...sometimes they feel too real. I quit smoking a few years ago and I still have dreams that I am smoking (I can taste it in my mouth and feel it in my lungs) and I wake up thinking I had a cigarette. Bizarre. Like you said, hopefully this is just reinforcement that cramming cake into my mouth is bad. It's one of my true vices and I've binged on it countless times. There are weekends when I just want to go to Walmart and grab a piece of cake (and I do, but I work it into my calories for the day), but I end up staring at the big cakes and just wanting to grab one and take it home. My sister and her girlfriends used to have sheet cake eating contests and I was always so bummed that I wasn't around for those.

wow, this post is so timely. I had my first binge dream ever last night. Not that Im new to binges, I've been doing it since I was a child. This whole week I've done really well and falling off the wagon and bingeing was weighing heavy on my mind. I vaguely remember gathering as much food as I could from some sort of buffet to take back to my house and gorge on.

I can totally relate to waking up feeling strange and guilty. I hope this doesn't become a regular occurrence!

Oh, I feel like I'm you, Emme! My downfall is cakes, too. I actually would buy huge birthday cakes and finish them off in an afternoon. I felt terrible, naturally. And I get your dreams, too. One time I dreamed about my school cafeteria having nothing but Reese's PB cups (another downfall of mine). I woke up crying. I think, for me, it's a wake up call. I journal about it and try not to let it control me. For me, what I do after the dreams are more important than the dreams themselves.

In a way I think it's our minds releasing feelings that we are holding in, so it's probably therapeutic that we are dreaming about it instead of actually doing it!

Ah, Reese's PB cups...those are good, too. Yes, dreams can definitely be good wake-up calls for us. Better to dream it than to actually do it, I guess!