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Carb Cravings? Feeling like you need to eat white flour/white sugar foods? Click here!
welcome to night eating!
Please read the following as it contains important information for optimal site
navigation!
  If you haven't visited the homepage, you're missing out on some important info, so I'll just give you a "heads up" here!
You've reached "night eating," part of the emotional feelings network of sites. If you scroll
down to the footer on this page, you'll see the complete listing of all the sites in the network!
All of the sites
in the emotional feelings network of sites are linked together thru a very complete network of underlined link words. Anytime you see an underlined link word, if you should be interested in more information concerning that word, simply click on it & a new browser window will
appear. The page that opens up will give you an entire page filled with information concerning
the word of your interest.
the emotional feelings network
of sites was designed like this because as an ex-night eater, I was also faced with many other life dysfunctions,
mental illness I was unaware of, domestic violence, a lack of any positive self esteem & so much more....
As I began my recovery, I began to slowly discover how all of the subjects contained within the emotional feelings
network of sites are connected to each other. Soon I also discovered that there's power in educating yourself about it all.
As you gain power thru your newly acquired knowledge, you begin to regain a sense of control. As you begin to feel better, you become stronger & you're more able to begin your own journey thru recovery & personal growth. Once you begin, you will see how the subjects contained within this network of sites really is...
all pertinent information for you - as a night eater!
visit the homepage for a better understanding of what's contained within the emotional feelings network of
sites!
thanks for stopping by.... i hope that something
within the network will be of use to you today....
kathleen
 "when my night eating began.... it was actually
a crossover from binging white bread & baked goods in the daytime....
i didn't want anyone to see me eating ... i didn't
want to be labeled the "one who ate all the cookies!"
Some reflections:
As I look back as well as
continue to correspond with those of you who may be experiencing night eating, I realize
that the eating / sleeping disorder that we've all been plagued with is certainly a sign
of emotional overload.
Whether you realize
it or not, something is "eating" you up inside. I've had people tell me that nothing is bothering them.
They insist that
their family history includes no dysfunctions. They can't remember any trauma, crises or emotional events that may have caused
emotional pain.
If you're a night eater, believe me, there's something in there. In where?
Inside that place, inside
your heart, your soul of souls, where you hide all the emotions & feelings that you don't know what to do with, how to cope with or don't want to face. It's that well of unresolved issues that stays quiet most of the time. It's that place that you
don't want to go to. It's that place that keeps you on edge. It's that place that doesn't allow you to get close to people
or be vulnerable to anyone.
Maybe you don't know
what it is. It's possible. The subconscious mind is very powerful. In this case, you have your work cut out for you in simply finding, identifying, recognizing & labeling the problems that are secretly plaguing you. If you have some ideas about what your hurts & inner turmoil is about, it's time to start sorting it all out.
Sometimes we have to go way back
in our lives to when we were born. It all starts there believe it or not. It all starts in the womb, actually. So get ready to learn more about yourself than you have ever known before.
This education will lead you to understanding. Understanding will lead you to acceptance & resolution. This will free you up to actually be able to stop the night eating.
There's some new information
at the bottom of the page you might be interested in reading. The chemicals in our brains might
be another missing piece of the night eating puzzle! I'm almost sure of it!
I wish you all well,
because I've been there. I will always be there. I don't believe the urge to night eat ever goes away completely. Once established as a coping mechanism, I believe that night eating is always on that back burner waiting for you to go to the kitchen again,
that first time in the night, to eat your first handful of cookies.
Think about it...
kathleen
the continuing debate amongst professionals today:
"Is night eating
syndrome a sleep disorder or an eating disorder?" the determining factor right now appears to be whether or not the individual's aware of the night eating while it's happening....
there's an "arrogance" surrounding sleep specialists' i've spoken with concerning the lack of knowledge about night
eating.... it's almost as if doctors in the medical profession think that individuals, "choose" this behavior as an "excuse" for their lack of control in eating habits....
as a survivor of night eating i have this opinion: i believe that in the initial stages of night eating, you know or are aware that you're waking up & eating in the night; but the more the syndrome escalates & the more sleep is interrupted,
the less aware one is of the eating process, it becomes almost mechanical & robotic.
....there were times in the most aggravated cycles of my night eating that i didn't remember waking to eat when i actually had done it.
can i tell you that night
eating is a parasomnia? (you may have heard that word in other
research you have done or from a doctor...) or an eating disorder? or a sleep disorder? or a sleep related eating disorder?
- i can only tell you what the experts are telling
us.... they really don't know much about night eating...
If you eat 12 SnackWell's Crème Sandwich Cookies which,
if you think about it, really isn't that hard to do: you've taken in 660 calories. That's more than 1/3 of the daily caloric intake.
The Merk Manual has
night-eating syndrome listed under the heading of obesity & has this to say about the syndrome:
The night-eating syndrome consists of:
Attempts at weight reduction in the presence of these 2 conditions are inordinately difficult & may
subject the patient to unnecessary extreme distress.
are you so tense, irritable, agitated, upset & anxious
that you can't read anymore now because it's difficult to concentrate & sit still? click here!
or just click here to read more information concerning night eating syndrome!
| If you've felt ambivalent about your eating habits |
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| click the picture to visit the ambivalent page! |
If you think back in time, were you at one time a cigarette smoker?
Did you drink alcohol, take drugs, shop too much, get lost in bingo or gambling?
Have you always had a difficult time controlling your weight?
Have you always had a difficult time establishing a regular
exercise routine?
Have you been anxious, depressed or suffered panic attacks?
I ask you these questions because in my own situation, I
first tried to use alcohol to cope with my problems when I realized I was a night eater. I knew, even as a child, that I couldn't
eat all the cookies every night or eat an entire cake or pie.... besides being a pre-teen, my figure was very important to
me!
Listed under "other eating disorders" this info was found:
Night Eating Syndrome
Signs & symptoms
- not hungry &/or upset about how much was eaten the night before
- eating more food after dinner than during dinner
- eating more than 1/2 of daily food intake after dinner but before breakfast
- the pattern has persisted for at least 2 months
- night eating behavior isn't exactly like
binge eating which is done in relatively short episodes
- night-eating syndrome involves continual waking & eating throughout
evening hours
Click to join nighteating101
consider joining us in the newly formed "night eaters
group" at yahoo groups! there's a few new members who have joined already & articles posted in the database for added
help to those trying to stop night eating! it's a support opportunity for those experiencing night eating.... join us....
we'd love to see you there! click the above yahoo groups link to join!
personal note from kathleen:
In association with the
information above, I just wanted you to understand that with my case of night eating, I had the exact symptoms as mentioned
above. There wasn't a single deviation from their descriptions.
After night eating I'd find myself feeling as though I had a "food hangover" in the morning from all the foods I
had eaten the night before. Most, if not all - of those foods included the high carbohydrate content mentioned and with my particular personal comfort food or weakness being bread, sweets & cereal.
I believe that I chose these foods for 2 significant reasons:
- Comfort: when I was a child, my mother was very distant & cold, experiencing her own depression & dysfunctional marriage & not realizing how it was affecting her children; but there was always one avenue of love & assurance that she offered me - home baked cookies, breads & sweets - there was always an abundance of them in
our home - they instilled a feeling of caring towards me somehow...
- An addictive factor in such foods: high carb foods - white flour &
white sugar foods break down into the same elements as alcohol does... alcohol addiction ran in my family - my parents were both addicted to alcohol, as i was in my teen & early adult life - thus trading in one negative coping method for another when I quit drinking
This "food hangover" would make me believe that i needed to starve myself during the day because I ate so much food at night!
This was a false belief! I was actually perpetuating the night eating syndrome by making myself so hungry at night
that my hunger pains worked in combination with the habitual cycle that I was in.
This almost assured me that
I would night eat again the next night.
Night Eating
Syndrome: a Result of Stress?
This syndrome is fairly common in obese persons.
Experts have evidence that Night Eating Syndrome
(NES), in which over 50% of daily food intake is consumed after 8 p.m.,
may be related to stress rather than hunger or other emotional factors.
While NES is fairly uncommon in the general
population (it's estmated to affect between 1 & 2% of adults), studies show that it
may occur in up to approximately 1/4 of obese persons. NES
was first described in 1955 & is characterized by:
-
lack of or decreased appetite during the day
-
insomnia
-
increased appetite at night
-
evening hyperphagia (increased eating) & nocturnal
eating (arising to eat after having gone to bed)
-
feeling tense, anxious, worried, or guilty while eating
-
the tendency to eat carbohydrate-rich
foods such as sugars & starchy foods.
In contrast to
binge eating disorder, which is characterized by short intense bursts of eating, NES sufferers generally eat
continuously through the evening & night. The causes of NES haven't been understood & it's been thought to result from a combination of environmental & biological factors.
Researchers in Norway studied the neuroendocrine patterns & stress hormone levels in a small group of women with NES & compared these to normal controls.
The doctors injected the study participants & controls with a dose of
the hormone CRH, which stimulates the body's stress response & measured the levels of hormones ACTH & cortisol in response to this trigger.
In the night eaters, the stress response - as measured by the secretion of ACTH & cortisol following CRH injection - was distinctly attenuated. CRH-induced ACTH levels were down 47% & cortisol levels were decreased by 71% in the night eaters.
These findings, published in the February 2002 issue of the American Journal
of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggest that a disordered stress response, characterized by a reduced pituitary- adrenal stress reaction, may be a cause of
NES.
An abnormal pituitary
gland function has also been detected in several other disorders such as insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, eating disorders & other mood disruptions.
Reference: Birketvedt GS, Sundsfjord J, Florholmen JR. Hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the night eating syndrome.
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2002 Feb;282(2):e366-9.
More information concerning cortisol and other hormones at the bottom of this page!
How many people have night-eating syndrome?
Perhaps only 1-2% of
adults in the general population have this problem, but one study suggests that more than a 1/4 (27%)
of people who're overweight by at least 100 pounds eat this way.
Comments
Night-eating syndrome hasn't yet been formally defined as an eating disorder. Underlying causes are being identified & treatment plans are still being developed. It seems likely that a combination
of biological, genetic & emotional factors contribute to the problem.
Researchers are especially interested in the foods chosen by night eaters. The heavy preference for carbohydrates, which trigger the brain to produce so-called
"feel-good" neurochemicals, suggests that night eating may be an unconscious attempt
to self-medicate mood problems.
If you're seeking help for night-eating
syndrome, you'd be wise to schedule a complete physical exam with your primary care physician & also an evaluation
with a counselor trained in the field of eating disorders.
In addition, a dietitian can help develop meal plans that distribute
intake more evenly throughout the day so that you're not so vulnerable to caloric loading in the evening.
so.... night eaters tend to control
themselves at times - what happens when the night eater attempts to go on a diet to lose some of the excess weight gained
from night eating????
Say that you weigh 150 pounds.
That means that you burn 1,800 calories per day
in a resting state.
Let's also imagine that in the course of a day
you burn 200 more calories living your life:
Your calorie needs then are, on average, 2,000
calories per day.
On average, you consume 2,050 calories per day.
On a daily basis your body is taking in & therefore storing, 50 calories more than it needs. So every 70 days (3,500 calories
in a pound / 50 calories each day = 70 days) you gain 1 pound (0.45 kg).
If that "50 extra calories per day" trend continues,
then over the course of a year you would gain 5 pounds. This, by the way, is the pattern for a big portion of the US population.
If you over-consume by just a few calories per
day, over time you'll gain weight. Keep in mind that just one Oreo-type cookie contains 50 calories, so over-consuming (night eaters) is incredibly easy.
 One cookie contains 50 calories.
Realizing
how much food a night eater takes in at night, you decide to limit yourself in the daytime when you're "in control."
You consume nothing but 2 cups of brown rice &
a can of Vienna sausages, along with all the onions you care to eat, every day. You start this
eating pattern & you are consuming only 1,000 calories per day.
You also start jogging 2 miles a day. That means
that, on a typical day, you're consuming 1,200 calories less than you need.
Over the course of 3 days (3,500 calories in a pound / 1,200 calories each day = approximately 3 days), you will lose 1 pound of weight.
You keep on this diet for 2 months & lose 20
pounds.
The day you go off this
diet, what's going to happen? First, you are probably going to eat a lot more than normal because you've been eating
nothing but rice & Vienna sausages for 2 months!
Then you will settle into your "normal
night eating pattern" that you had before the controlled diet. Eventually all of the weight comes back & you're depressed, frustrated & hating yourself.
You eat twice as much at night.
This is why diets don't work for most
people. You do lose weight, but then go off the diet & gain it back. What is needed instead is a sustainable diet - a food consumption & exercise plan - that lets you live a normal life & eat normal foods in a normal way.
check in at changes to learn more about healthy foods & great exercise choices.
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