Any sleep eaters out there?

[caregiver50]

I have the problem of sleep eating. I get up in the middle of the night and eat without my being aware. This situation is especially bad if I have a glass of wine, which I dearly love. After going out to dinner last night, I got up twice. This really bothers me and the only way to control it is to stop having that glass of wine. Does anyone else have the same problem?

[MKSquared]

There have been nights when I wake up, head directly to the kitchen, and open the fridge, all completely mindlessly! This is at 3 AM or some other inane hour - so I may have experienced the same thing! I haven't been able to narrow it down to a cause.

I know that I'm opening the fridge because I'm hot and my mouth is dry ... a bottle of something cold and not too bad for me can squelch whatever's going on. Maybe you could try stocking cold bottles of water, juice or milk on the top shelf, in the front, where it's readily accessible?

In both of our cases, maybe it's our bodies being dehydrated??It couldn't hurt to drink enough water to compensate for the alcohol in the wine. :)

[Jewel]

That MUST be how I've gained this last 20 lbs, because I KNOW I'm not eating too much when I'm awake! :D :D :D

[sneezles]

While I am not anywhere near an expert(just someone who suffers from this dilema... low blood sugars has to do a lot with "late night consumption") Alchohol contributes to low blood sugar(hence Type II usually do not take medication if they know they are going to drink alchohol). However, there is a time during the night that the blood sugar returns to "normal" which is when you "wake up," it is your body telling you that the "system" needs something." I am sure that someone out there with Type II or Hypoglyceimia is able to explain this better. It is usually a protein that works best for me (ie., milk, peanut butter, cheese, etc) and when I wake up in the morning I usually have to consume the proteins listed above.

[Alisa]

I have Juvenile Diabetes (Type 1) and when I have a sugar low it is almost always around 3am - and this comes from 26 years experience! For me, it's because this is when my night-time shot of insulin kicks in, in non-diabetics it's often because your body has excreted a little too much insulin to take care of your supper - I know alcohol can cause insulin production to be "off". So there's my desperately non-scientific response!
Alisa

[Beth]

Here's another example of never knowing what you might learn on this BB. I had no idea what to think when I read this question the first time, but the responses make sense. And I just thought I was going to take a peek at what everyone else was up to and see if I could get inspired with dinner ideas since our scout cookout tonight was cancelled. ;)