Question:
What makes a person get up in the middle of the night & eat?

Middle of the night eating. What is this all about? I haven't the foggiest idea why this happens. But I get up sometimes 2x in the middle of a dead sleep and get pretzels or jello (or anything else handy) and even fall asleep while eating it. WHY AM I DOING THIS? This has happened on and off throughout my life but I haven't had this problem in maybe 7 years. Does this happen to anyone else? Signed, Wierd Werewolf    — Linda E. (posted on July 9, 2002)

July 9, 2002
You're not weird by any means...if that's the case, then so are may of the rest of us. You didn't mention and I didn't do to your profile, but have you had the WLS yet? Linda, I can't honestly answer your question, but over the 4th of July holiday, I wandered into Waldenbooks and found this book-"Why Can't I Stop Eating? (Recognizing, Understanding, and Overcoming Food Addiction-A Food Plan for Life by Debbie Danowski & Pedro Lazaro, M.D. No, it's not another "diet", but it does have some very interesting information. Worth checking out, at least. ~~Hadiyah~~
   — yourdivaness

July 9, 2002
Well, I THINK I remember reading somewhere that that is some form of sleepwalking. I don't remember for sure, but I think that was what I read. I would ask your doctor to be sure! :o)
   — fropunka

July 9, 2002
I wish I knew what caused this.....I have been plagued by it for most of my adult life. EVen when I was dieting or on Weight WAtchers, or whatever, I would eat exactly what I was supposed to by day, only to get up 2 to 4 times a night and eat. I have asked doctors and even a therapist but never got any answer. I found out six months ago that I have sleep apnea and sleep with a cpap machine. It helps me so much and when I sleep, it is great, but I STILL get up once a night and grab food. I hope to have my surgery in August. I am hoping that the problem will go away as my fat does. Good Luck Carol Holmes
   — Carol H.

July 9, 2002
I wish I knew what caused this.....I have been plagued by it for most of my adult life. EVen when I was dieting or on Weight WAtchers, or whatever, I would eat exactly what I was supposed to by day, only to get up 2 to 4 times a night and eat. I have asked doctors and even a therapist but never got any answer. I found out six months ago that I have sleep apnea and sleep with a cpap machine. It helps me so much and when I sleep, it is great, but I STILL get up once a night and grab food. I hope to have my surgery in August. I am hoping that the problem will go away as my fat does. Good Luck Carol Holmes
   — Carol H.

July 9, 2002
Well, I can't really help you too much, but I did see a segment on 20/20 or Datleline or one of those shows quite some time ago about a sleep disorder that causes people to do this. They even showed videotapes of people who got out of bed, stood in the kitchen and ate full meals, or snacks and some even took the food back into bed with them. These people were actually sleeping! So, it is definitely a possiblity that you have some sort of a sleep disorder. Probably a little research on the net will lead you in the right direction to find out more. Good luck to you!
   — PaulaM

July 9, 2002
my sister went through this too. she had surgery in january and a few months ago she found that she was sleep eating. her therapist could not tell her why, but recommended she get an alarm on her house. we laughed about it, but it is really a serious thing. she would get up in the morning and find full cartons of food gone. she wondered how she could hold a whole can of fruit of something like that. she even started cleaning her dishes when done. :) never remembered a thing in the morning.
   — candymom64