Is it harmful to eat at night: a harmless habit or a full-fledged disease. Why you can eat at night

Content

Night raids on the refrigerator are far from uncommon in our world. With all the understanding that this is bad, not everyone is able to overcome themselves and refuse such meals. In order to unlearn snacking at night or at night, you need to have an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat reasons this behavior can cause.

Causes

The causes of night eating syndrome can be different:

Night trips to the refrigerator may be due to the fact that a person simply does not eat up during the day - skipping breakfast, lunch or dinner. If in the daytime he succeeds in doing this, then by nighttime self-control is noticeably reduced and he can no longer cope with the irresistible desire to empty the refrigerator. Such a diet can gradually become a habit, and the night eater finds himself in a vicious circle.
Nighttime snacking may be due to the fact that a person is trying to relieve stress in this way (the problem of stress eating). Such a patient, having opened the refrigerator, is looking not for sausage or something else, but in this way he tries to get rid of the negative emotions that have accumulated during the day.

Night meals can act as a means to suppress their fear in those people who are afraid of the dark. After turning off the light, such a person cannot fall asleep due to a feeling of discomfort and anxiety. At some point, he finds himself in the kitchen and finds a way to rid himself of the discomfort. Having safely had a bite and feeling a certain security, such a person can finally fall asleep peacefully.
You should not discount the more serious cause of nighttime overeating, which lies in the occurrence of real problems with the stomach, for example, gastritis. It makes sense to seek advice from a doctor, because it often happens that the patient does not even know about such an ailment.

Harm of night eating

At night, the work of our body is carried out somewhat differently than during the day.

Closer to the night, the functioning of the digestive system slows down somewhat. What you eat before going to bed remains almost unchanged until the morning. During sleep, this mass begins to gradually decompose, resulting in the formation of toxins. In the morning, half-rotten food begins to be processed and all the substances accumulated during the night enter the bloodstream.

It is important to remember that heavy meat foods, as well as fast food, are digested even longer than plant foods, thereby creating an additional load on the digestive canal.

A full stomach at night begins to put pressure on nearby internal organs. The result is a decrease in the amount of oxygen and nutrients supplied to them, which, in turn, can cause poor sleep.

During sleep, the human body is motionless, which means that the carbohydrates contained in food are not spent on performing any actions, but safely replenish fat reserves. As a result of a hearty dinner and nightly raids on the refrigerator, the risk of developing obesity is significantly increased.

Eating foods before bed can negatively affect hormone production. As a result of a decrease in the production of melatonin, the quality of sleep deteriorates, and a change in cortisol levels accelerates the aging process.

Night hunger promotes renewal and restoration of the body.

If you want to eat at night, then it is enough to remember at least some of the listed reasons. Perhaps such a prospect can stop someone.

Ways to beat the urge to snack at night

People who know about this pressing problem firsthand are concerned about the question: what to do if you feel hungry at night.

At night, the body needs rest, it must sleep, and not digest the delicacies eaten before bedtime. In the event that night trips to the kitchen are not caused by stress, but they are based on a habit, it is necessary to mobilize all forces to normalize metabolic processes. To do this, it makes sense to follow certain rules.

Increasing the amount of protein consumed

Fish, turkey, cottage cheese, cheese, lean meat contain quite a lot of tryptophan, which inside the body turns into melatonin and serotonin. The hormone of pleasure can be obtained from useful products, which will help normalize hormonal balance and overcome nighttime stress by avoiding night trips to the refrigerator.

Breakfast is a must!

If you have a snack before going to bed or at night, then you usually don’t want to have breakfast. Nevertheless, it is necessary to eat in the morning, even if you do not feel like it. It is a hearty breakfast that is the basic rule of a healthy diet. The morning meal should contain about 30% of the daily calorie intake. If you drink one coffee for breakfast, and have a salad for lunch. But at night, your feet will carry you to the kitchen. Porridge is the best kind of breakfast. Rich in fiber, this dish improves bowel function. By the way, if you learn to have dinner at least 2-3 hours before bedtime, then in the morning you will definitely want to have breakfast.

The trouble of many is that at night you want sweets and it is not easy to cope with this desire. In this case, you can afford to taste a low-fat light dessert after dinner. It can be a milkshake with frozen berries, yogurt ice cream, dried fruits, an apple, low-fat cottage cheese, jelly, meringue.

Fractional meals during the day

Eating less but more often is a win-win solution to all diet problems. Gradually, the body will wean from the night gluttony and the habit of snacking. Fractional nutrition is not a diet or any kind of treatment, it's just a healthy regimen. By eating more often, you simply will not have time to get hungry. Eating 150-200 grams of food every 2-3 hours will help to avoid the state of absolute hunger. The body will work well during the day, and at night it will not want to get another portion of food at all.

The last meal should be taken 3 hours before bedtime.

You need to try to reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods, replace them with healthy ones.
Before going to bed, you can drink a glass of fermented baked milk or kefir. It is better to always have a supply of this product in the refrigerator, because once you do not find it, you will want to try something else.
It is recommended to drink plenty of water during the day. At night, it is also better to keep fruit drinks, tea or water next to you in case you feel thirsty and to avoid going to the kitchen.

Experts recommend walking more in the fresh air and doing fitness.
Brushing your teeth before bed reduces your nighttime appetite.
It is important to train yourself to go to bed on time. You should not stay up late for some "pleasant" things, such as watching TV, playing computer games. The result of this behavior will be the problem of lack of sleep and the emergence of a desire to snack.
It makes sense to make an effort and create a comfortable atmosphere around you.

If before going to bed an irresistible desire to eat something came up, try to deceive the brain - drink a glass of water. This technique will create a feeling of heaviness in the stomach and it will be easier to fall asleep.

Often the desire to eat is not caused by a feeling of hunger, but by some psychological reasons. It is important to learn to recognize real hunger from imaginary one and to accustom yourself to eat only when you really want to. Sometimes it is not so easy, but it is necessary to work on your strong-willed qualities.

Having an idea of how to moderate your appetite in the evening will help you avoid the problem of overeating. Remember, if life is filled with positive emotions and there is no place for stress in it, then the habit of eating at night will disappear by itself.

Many people, especially those who experience various diets, are concerned about why they want to eat at night, and in the morning this feeling may not be so strong. There can be many reasons for this condition, starting with insufficient food intake during the previous day, ending with serious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. It is important to understand that the patient will not be able to independently determine the reason why he wants to eat in the evening and at night. In this regard, if this problem persists for several days, it is necessary to seek medical help and undergo the prescribed examination methods.

Night trips to the refrigerator are not a harmless thing at all.

Possible reasons

The reasons why you really want to eat at night differ significantly in individual patients. However, there are conditions and diseases that are most often accompanied by such sensations.

The simplest reason is poor nutrition during the previous day. If a person could not have a good breakfast, lunch or dinner, then his body may want this during the night, which many people perceive as a symptom of the disease. A similar situation is noted in pregnant women, since during pregnancy the need for nutrients is constantly at a high level.
The second most common reason why you want to eat at night is chronic or acute stressful situations that can occur both in a person’s personal and professional life.
Psychology is of some importance, as some people have a fear of the dark, and they try to drown it out with the help of sweet or other pleasant-tasting foods.
It is important to understand that the reason why you want sweets at night can be associated with organic diseases of the digestive system, for example, gastritis. In this regard, it is necessary to consult a doctor when such symptoms appear.

If a person wants to eat at night, then you should not immediately panic about the presence of serious illnesses. In most cases, the causes of this condition are associated with malnutrition or stress in life.

Psychological stress is one of the main factors for increasing appetite in people during a night's rest.

Why shouldn't you eat at night?

Even if you really want to eat at night (especially sweets, fruits, bread, etc.), it is better not to do this for a number of reasons. The food received at night is poorly digested, which is associated with a decrease in the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. As a rule, during rest, the peristalsis of the small and large intestine slows down, and the pancreas and liver practically do not secrete their secrets into the intestinal lumen. A food bolus can linger in the lumen of organs for a long time, disturbing sleep, which is manifested in the morning by drowsiness and a feeling of weakness.

When a person goes to bed and at the same time, getting up at night, consumes carbohydrates and other foods, this leads to an increase in insulin levels, which are already at a fairly high level during periods of night rest. This physiological phenomenon is associated with the answer to the question of why you want sweets at night. This phenomenon can lead to the development of a pre-diabetic state that can progress to diabetes mellitus. In addition, the consumption of carbohydrate foods during a period of low physical activity leads to an increase in fat reserves in the body.

Increased consumption of carbohydrates leads to a violation of the sensitivity of tissues to insulin, which can lead to the development of diabetes and other diseases.

Wanting to eat at night is a physiological phenomenon, however, normally a person never wakes up because of this feeling, but feels it only at the moment of awakening. If you eat all the time before falling asleep or at night, this can lead to the problems described above.

Health care

"Night appetite" requires appropriate examinations and recommendations of specialists

When a person wonders why he does not want to sleep at night, but there is a constant feeling of hunger, he needs to turn to specialists. Experienced doctors will be able to identify the main causes of increased appetite at night and select the best treatment measures. It is best to visit the following doctors.

A psychotherapist who is able to provide psychological assistance to a person in cases where changes in appetite are associated with anxiety, fear, stressful situations and other internal factors.
A nutritionist who decides on dietary adjustments and nutritional approaches. This specialist is indicated in cases where a person has a lack of nutrients, irregular meals, etc.
If there are suspicions of organic causes of such changes, i.e. diseases of the digestive system, endocrine, etc. are possible, then it is necessary to visit a general practitioner who will conduct an initial examination and choose further diagnostic tactics.

The timeliness of seeking medical help makes it possible to identify the possible causes of the development of such a condition and to choose methods for correcting the feeling of hunger at night for each person.

In addition to seeking medical attention, the patient should follow these guidelines to help manage the problem.

It is necessary to normalize your approach to nutrition: it should be regular (at least 4 times a day), and also contain a variety of healthy foods.
Immediately before going to bed, the patient can drink a glass of a fermented milk product (kefir, fermented baked milk, etc.) in order to reduce the possible feeling of hunger during sleep. For the same purpose, a person can drink a mug of plain water to fill the stomach.

Before going to bed it is useful to drink a glass of yogurt

It is essential to drink enough fluids throughout the day, as thirst is often the main reason for waking up at night, followed by feelings of hunger.
Normalization of the daily routine with the setting of a constant time for waking up and falling asleep allows you to adjust the body to this rhythm. Why is it necessary to do this? Behavioral responses, including hunger, depend on the activity of the brain and the level of hormones in the blood. A regular sleep/wake cycle improves these reactions of the body, adapting them to human life.

Following these simple tips will, in most cases, quickly deal with nighttime overeating. However, it is important to remember that the cause of this condition may be damage to the internal organs, in which no advice will lead to recovery without effective therapy.

The main task of treatment is to adjust the diet and lifestyle to ensure healthy sleep and prevent the development of organic diseases.

An increased feeling of hunger at night is found in many people. Most often, it is associated with an insufficient amount and calorie intake of food on the previous day or with psychological problems, for example, with chronic stress in a person's life. The fight against nighttime eating requires seeking medical help and adjusting lifestyle and nutrition.

Some people suffer from a constant desire to eat at night. Everyone knows that this is not very useful. But what to do?

When darkness falls and ordinary people go to rest from the works of the righteous, THEY go hunting - who openly, and who hide, make their way to their hunting grounds, where their silent prey awaits. Having finished with it, THEY fall asleep, who is serene, and who is in tears, but each of THEM knows: it will take several hours or several days and the hunt will repeat again, writes women.itop.net.

The Food Hunt is on

According to dry statistics among people who are overweight or obese, almost half regularly overeat in the evening, and some even raid the refrigerator in the middle of the night. However, people do it in different ways: someone steals a piece of sausage every ten minutes, someone eats a pot of pasta at once. The fact is that the causes of night gluttony can be different, and the ways to solve the problem will be different.

If you are a representative of a tribe of Night Food Hunters, then first you need to understand: what exactly drives you to the refrigerator, how and how much do you eat in the evening or at night, what happens after the raid on the kitchen? To make it easier to navigate, get acquainted with a few of the most common cases.

"Second Dinner"

Good advice not to eat “after six” helps a lot of people, because in the evening the digestive system does not work as efficiently as in the morning and afternoon. Only those who resort to this method do not always act correctly, because, wanting to lose weight as quickly as possible, they not only refuse dinner, but also have very poor breakfast and lunch. It is not surprising that in the evening, in an organism that is underfed during the day, a wolf's hunger appears just the same. An attempt to satisfy this hunger with boiled cabbage or cucumber salad is almost always doomed to failure.

As a result, following all the rules of dietary nutrition during the day, in the evening a person breaks down and arranges a second dinner, usually not from dietary products at all. Then comes pangs of conscience and promises to myself tomorrow to stop eating in the evenings. As a rule, self-persuasion does not work and after a day or two everything repeats again, forcing the frustrated and tormented Night Hunter to look for other ways to lose weight.

perestroika

In such a situation, everything is solved very simply: it is enough to competently build meals during the day, because the absence of dinner implies quite full breakfasts and lunches. For example, for breakfast, a person can easily afford to eat porridge or scrambled eggs, cheesecakes or a couple of sandwiches - thus he will provide himself with the calories necessary for a working day. Of course, for those who monitor their weight, it is better not to add sugar to porridge, it is not necessary to add sausage and cheese to an omelette, and for making sandwiches it is best to use whole grain bread. But in general, breakfast can be quite hearty and satisfying.

Don't forget about lunch either. If there is an excess of body weight, it is quite possible to refuse side dishes, rich soups and dense salads. On the other hand, a large portion of fresh vegetable salad and a piece of boiled or baked meat (fish, poultry) will not hurt at all. Finally, when X hour approaches, after which it’s no longer worth eating anything, it’s worth having a snack. You can eat 100 g of low-fat cottage cheese or natural yogurt, or a fruit salad. Boiled or steamed vegetables will be absolutely harmless: green beans, zucchini, bell peppers, all types of cabbage. These dishes are not very high in calories, but they help to get rid of hunger.

Thus, if in a diet where no dinner is required, the correct diet plays a very important role and makes it easier to go without food in the evening.

stress food

Another very common situation for night trips to the kitchen. Stress eating is typical both for people who have recently experienced a strong emotional shock, and for people who are in a state of permanent stress, which are not so few in today's crazy world. In this case, food is used as an antidepressant, a distraction from problems and a kind of simple entertainment.

The mechanism of stress eating can work at any time of the day, although it most often works in the evening, when the human nervous system is most vulnerable. By the way, it is stress-eating that often causes a set of overweight in lonely people, people who have lost loved ones and those who have a “black streak” in their lives.

It’s easy to understand that you are a stress eater: firstly, any emotionally intense situation (even if we are talking about positive emotions!) I want to “seize”. Secondly, the choice usually falls on well-defined products. Although many claim that they do not care what they eat, this is not entirely true.

Nocturnal stress eaters tend to choose food with a pronounced taste, as against the background of stress, the sensitivity of the taste buds of the tongue decreases. For example, a stress eater would rather choose smoked sausage than boiled chicken. The "victims" of this group of Night Food Hunters are often sweets rich in glucose, or foods that increase the production of serotonin (the hormone of joy): cheese, chocolate, white bread, bananas. Such products have the properties of natural antidepressants, but, unfortunately, for the most part they are hypercaloric, which cannot but affect the figure.

It is possible to help stress eaters, although not always a person manages to cope on his own, in some cases the help of a psychologist is required.

It is important to monitor the diet: it is advisable to do 2-3 small snacks per day in addition to the main meals.

You need to try to make the evening a time of psychological rest: meditation, yoga classes, baths with fragrant oils or herbs, spa treatments help very well.

You can also resort to more intense activities: aerobics, dancing, swimming - which contribute to the intensive consumption of "stress hormones".

You can just take a walk or do your favorite hobby, the most important thing is that all this happens away from the kitchen.

It is better to stop watching TV in the evening, especially when it comes to action films, scandalous talk shows, sports or news programs. The very flickering of the TV screen strongly excites the nervous system, not to mention the very content of such programs. Therefore, for those who want to spend a quiet evening at home, it is better to choose comedy films or educational programs, in addition, melodious music or an audiobook can become an alternative to TV.

Another technique for weaning a stress eater from eating at night is to make it as difficult as possible for him to get to the kitchen. For example, place a heavy ironing board across the kitchen door with a couple of chairs in front of it and a basin of water on them. And don't take this advice as a joke: just imagine what it's like every time you want to pull a piece of something tasty from the refrigerator, dismantle such a barricade?! But what if it happens at night and everything has to be done in the dark and quietly, so as not to wake the whole house?

By the way, this advice is also well suited for those who eat in the evenings “from nothing to do”: as a rule, they are lonely, or people who feel lonely, who can also be attributed to the breed of stress eaters.

hungry stomach

There is another variety of Night Hunters, who are driven to the refrigerator not by stress or diet, but by a real full-fledged feeling of hunger. These are people who suffer from chronic gastritis or peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, and some of them do not even know about their diagnosis.

As a rule, in such a situation, a person in the evening, more often closer to the night, begins to be disturbed by the feeling of hunger: from a slight sucking sensation in the pit of the stomach to pronounced hungry pains in the stomach. Moreover, the choice of products will also be special: often patients with gastritis instinctively choose products that reduce acidity, or are neutral for the stomach: warm milk or kefir, white bread, dry cookies, cereals. Literally a few sips or pieces help the stomach calm down and allow a person to fall asleep. But this peace is only an appearance: on the one hand, the flow of food into the stomach prevents its irritation with gastric juice, on the other hand, the work of the digestive system at inopportune times does not contribute to its health. Therefore, if you belong to this category of night eaters, it is better to consult a gastroenterologist, because a well-chosen treatment will not only save you from evening pain, but also from overeating at night.

In the area of special attention

Night raids on the refrigerator are also made by those who are not satisfied with a small amount of food - therefore they eat a lot at once. Sometimes the process of food absorption is poorly controlled and a person wakes up next to an empty frying pan or pot, in which there was food prepared for the whole family for several days: literally everything that came to hand can be eaten. A food orgy often ends in remorse and tears, but later it repeats again at different intervals. As a rule, such people suffer from a large excess of body weight or obesity.

Those who can classify themselves in this category of Night Hunters should pay special attention to their state of health. After all, food orgies are not the result of a lack of willpower or intemperance, but a consequence of severe hormonal disorders. Usually we are talking about the dysregulation of the work of the pituitary and hypothalamus - the endocrine organs that "command" almost all processes that occur with the participation of a variety of hormones. For example, their failure can be accompanied by a sharp drop in blood sugar, which gives rise to poorly controlled hunger and episodes of overeating.

In order to somehow protect yourself from a food breakdown in this case, use a few tips:

You should always keep some low-calorie foods on hand. Low-fat yogurt, Chinese salad, cabbage or sour apples should be in the foreground in the refrigerator to be the first to be on hand.

Eat such foods slowly, in small pieces, chewing thoroughly, which helps to survive the hormonal surge, which usually does not last very long.

Do not try to experiment with diets on your own, because we are talking about a serious problem that only a specialist will help to cope with.

Get checked out by an endocrinologist as soon as possible - this is the main advice in this case.

Source: e-news.com.ua

Do you constantly catch yourself on the fact that at night you find yourself at the refrigerator? You are not alone. Night snacks are abused by many, and even fully aware that this will not benefit. Let's see why we are so desperately drawn to the kitchen when we should already be in bed.

Reason #1 - malnutrition

You want to eat at night because you didn’t eat enough during the day, or maybe even skipped a meal. And the closer the evening, the weaker self-control. Sometimes it can get to the point that you wake up in the middle of the night and go to the kitchen to eat a huge piece of cake or a whole pot of soup there, that is, to eat thoroughly. After that, you calmly go to sleep. You may not feel like eating breakfast the next morning, and that's understandable. Gradually, night snacks become a habit, and you are in a vicious circle, when you don’t feel like eating in the morning, but at night you catch up.

Reason #2 - Stress

Those who often go on diets know that food is a great way to get rid of stress. That is why it is so often "jammed" by stress, and the result is obesity. Perhaps you want to eat at night not because you are hungry, but because you want to get rid of the negativity that you experienced during the day. Despite the fact that you went to the refrigerator, when you woke up in the middle of the night, you were tense. By the way, if in the morning you don’t remember that you had a snack at night, this is not surprising.

Reason number 3 - fears

You can “jam” not only stress, but also fear. Did you know that many adults consciously or subconsciously continue to be afraid of the dark? You went to bed, put out the light, but you are somehow anxious. And now you are already in the kitchen, found food in the refrigerator, ate and calmed down. Thus, a night snack will give a feeling of security, so that a person can fall asleep peacefully.

Night food is bad!

Night is a time for sleeping, not for eating. No wonder nutritionists advise to have dinner no later than 2 hours before bedtime. Otherwise, the organs of the gastrointestinal tract have a serious burden on the digestion of food.

If the desire to have a bite is persistent, it is better to get by with something light, for example, a vegetable salad or something dairy (kefir, milk). Or you can just drink warm tea. And no sweet, starchy or fried!

What the experts say

Clinical psychologists working in nutrition centers advise, first of all, to establish a normal diet so that, having eaten during the day, a person does not want to eat at night. You should not go on restrictive diets - because of them, people often start snacking at night. As the evening approaches, it becomes more difficult to control yourself, and as a result, you give up.

It is also worth adopting psychological recommendations. Find a way to relax during the day. Make it so that stress can be relieved not by food, but by some pleasant activity.

It is good if a person is aware of the existence of a problem - the desire to eat at night. This pushes him to the need to watch when he eats. He has a desire to understand his needs and emotions. He is working on himself, as a result of which the tension that provokes nightly snacks goes away. Do not expect instant results - the bad habit of eating at night will disappear with time.

Today I am publishing the first part of a story about my personal experience of dealing with the “night food syndrome”, written by Yulia Lukina.

Julia wrote to me and her story seemed to me not only interesting, but also very important. There is everything here - plot, intrigue, denouement: you will read how Yulia "fell ill", how everything innocently began, how she was diagnosed, what steps she takes to get rid of the night eating syndrome. Today I am posting the beginning.

Three o'clock at night. I rip off my blanket, my hands are shaking, a cold sweat breaks out. No time, no opportunity to think, assess the situation, no. We urgently need to run. Right now. At the level of instinct comes the realization that this is already a matter of life or death. And, jumping up, I run ... to the refrigerator. And after 30 minutes, I guiltily trudge back to bed, trying not to wake up the household and not be caught in all my shame. Yes, I have had 4 nights a week for the last three years. And for three more nights, I, waking up “to the toilet”, just sluggishly, but stubbornly, gobble up something on the way there, and sometimes back.

What is "night eating syndrome"?

night eating syndrome(Night Eating Syndrome, hereinafter SNE) was first described by an American doctor Albert Stunkard in 1953. The manifestation of the disease is reduced to the fact that a person wakes up abruptly in the middle of the night, experiencing an obsessive desire to eat. The most unpleasant thing about this is that, as a rule, only an hour or two passes from the moment of falling asleep. Of course, further in the history of SNE, there were any variations on the theme: someone can wake up in 10 minutes, and someone in the morning, some do not remember their “road of shame” to the refrigerator at all and can only judge something wrong only in the morning by a pile of wrappers on the table (quite a shame somehow), there are those who eat only forbidden foods, there are those who only before falling asleep (in the literal sense - in 5 minutes).

If I had been told three years ago in April 2011 that I would eat at night, I would have just laughed. All my life I ate dinner no later than 7 pm. During the day, I ate well, fully ate two or three times. After pregnancy, I wanted to lose weight. It is also quite understandable and normal. Of the 7 kilograms gained, 3.5 left quickly and imperceptibly, and the second 3.5 claimed their rights on my body. I had to overcome them. Armed with literature, I decided to increase my sports loads (I must say that I already devoted a lot of time to the gym) and reduce calories, primarily due to fat, and then due to some carbohydrates. The plan worked - the weight went down.

The only side effect of the new regime was, so to speak, morning insomnia. The fact is that I usually have breakfast around 9 am. And then she began to wake up at 5:30, maximum 6. No matter what time she went to bed. And when I woke up, I certainly wanted to eat. After eating, I could no longer afford to go to sleep any longer. This is how my day started at that time. Frankly, it was not easy, because all the time I wanted to sleep. And after a couple of months, exhausted by lack of sleep, I guessed to go back to bed right after breakfast. That dream was sweet and deep. Soon this pattern of behavior entered the system. I lost weight, ate and slept. What to worry about?

Only morning affairs naturally shifted to “afternoon”. The evening for me became two hours longer and gradually faded into the night. Even now I understand that it was a strategic mistake, because all my life I was a hundred percent early bird. Having betrayed my biological rhythms, I got a lot of problems. But at that stage, I found another positive in the new system of nutrition and sleep. Honestly speaking, I had some difficulties with flatulence. Eating something other than pure protein food, I could often get a bloated stomach, which came to its senses and deflated just during the night. Not without pleasure, I noticed that this does not happen if you go to bed immediately after eating. This was another key mistake. Instead of straightening out my schedule, I began to enjoy the morning, and after a couple of months, night outings.

Night Eating Syndrome. Slowly I began to transform into a sociopath

A year later, the nighttime appetite became brutal. I was no longer able to negotiate with myself or understand myself. Slowly, I began to transform into a sociopath. Lack of appetite in the morning, missed breakfast, increased appetite in the evening, evening and zhor, waking up at night, getting up too early ... out of the blue, I got hatred for myself and my actions, a feeling of complete exclusivity, however, with a powerful minus sign. I canceled already afternoon meetings, I could miss school or work because of guilt, a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. Now I don't sleep at all. Moreover, I was afraid to go to bed in the evening and in every possible way delayed this moment. Mistake after mistake - I led myself into the wilds of an eating disorder.

One morning, my husband found me crying over my third cup of coffee (which, by the way, I had never drunk before). In the evening, he told me that he had conducted a research and “congratulated” that I had a rare disorder called NES - night eating syndrome, which we immediately renamed the less threatening-sounding Nessie (now instead of “did you eat again at night?” It was decided ask if I fed Nessie today). Together we found two books on the night eating syndrome, one for the general public and one for medical practitioners. Plus, we unearthed a couple of US forums on the Internet. It turned out that there are not so few people like me. That everyone has their own story, but many at the onset of the disease went in for sports or were on diets, that antidepressants help some people not to wake up from night hunger, that they should accept their disorder and not blame themselves for it, but slowly start looking for ways to get rid of SNE. Although, in fairness, I have not found a single case of a miraculous cure for this scourge. Remission - yes. But they say that if you were once overweight and lost weight, then you, too, are just in remission, which can last a lifetime.

To be continued: in the second part, Julia will talk about her struggle with this problem.
Maybe in this story someone recognized himself. I was reading this text with pain in my heart - I had a long period of night eating - before going to bed I fell into a trance and in this state I could eat some wild amounts of food until my stomach hurt. When in the morning I found traces of my nightly gluttony, I even cried. I had a side effect of antidepressants in this way, but it took a long time to figure it out ...
I am also sinful in that in my old posts I attributed such behavior to food debauchery (and I insist that it exists, but, of course, what Yulia writes about is, it seems to me, a mental disorder).

It seems to me that this topic is very important and I hope that you will share your stories, tell how you struggled with this most difficult problem, how others perceive it - it is no secret that sometimes the closest people ridicule “night gluttons”, adding them suffering.