Am I Sleep Eating?

Have you ever woke up and seen evidence of things happening during the night that you don't remember what or why............and not because you were passed out drunk? I do. I knew that occasionally I will wake in the middle of the night feeling like I'm going to die of thirst and I head into the kitchen to guzzle down anything cold in the fridge.....usually a soda or water. I never knew though that I was eating in my sleep. Not until a couple of months ago.........when I woke up one morning and found this on my bedside table..........................

"Sleepeaters also tend to eat foods high in calories or sugar, and may eat foods while sleepeating that they normally would not eat on their own, or which would not be seen as socially acceptable to eat on their own, such as peanut butter on its own, or sugar or syrup on its own. The food is also consumed much quicker than it would be during waking hours." - Sleep Association

Seriously? I don't even like cherries. Lets look at this picture. There are several things just not right here....like what is the liquid around the can of cherries? I have no idea, I did smell it though, and it didn't have a bad smell, looked kind of like soda. Then you have the can, unopened, on a paper plate. As far as I could think back, I couldn't remember ever doing this before. I was really bothered by finding this mainly because I couldn't believe I could do this with absolutely no memory of it. It's so strange, and it wasn't the last time. However, the next time, it was something I actually like to eat.

So, look. My daughter is now 20 months old, and I had lost almost all of my baby weight within a few months after I had her. Then, I started gaining it back..........all of it. So I've really been trying to drop the weight, started watching what I eat again, recently purchased Zumba (so totally fun by the way) and I even tried hypnosis or rather something like subliminal message type therapy (which I will have to share with you later because I actually liked it). Well, the first night I tried this subliminal message thing, I woke up the next morning with hershey kisses melted in my hand. What gives. Thing is, the message I listened to the night before was all about eating healthy foods and how bad foods make you feel weighed down and yucky. How am I supposed to lose weight when my fat ass subconscious is out to sabotage my sexy mama outer self?

So I did what I always do when I'm curious about something. I Googled it, and I was surprised to see that it's an actual disorder. Apparently sleep eaters will wake during the night, sometimes several times in one sleeping period, and eat and/or drink, often excessively. Perfect, just what I need. Why do I have to sleep eat? What would it take to change this disorder to maybe sleep cleaning, or sleep exercising that way I'm doing things I really don't like to do effortlessly and without any knowledge. But no. According to the Sleep Association, sleepeaters have only one desire, to eat. They do not care to clean up the mess, just eat. So that's even better, I'm getting fat and I have to wake up to a weird mess in the mornings to clean.

Really....I'm really trying to be serious about this, but I just can't I mean, sleep eating. I just think it's funny, even though it's weird and I don't like that I do it. However, the Sleep Association says that there are many dangers that come from sleepeating. So in case you do this too, here are some things you should know:

• Sleep eaters tend to eat foods high in sugars and calories ( hide all the Little Debbies)
• Sleep eaters could injure themselves trying to prepare a hot dish.
• Sleep eaters could injure themselves trying to chop up foods.
• Sleep eaters could eventually end up with a broken scale.
• Sleep eaters could possibly ingest a bizarre combination of foods or even consume NON-FOOD items like cigarettes, coffee beans, or even cleaning liquids which could lead to severe stomachache or illness....................you think?

There isn't a clearly stated cause of sleep eating, however there are some possible factors (they think) like anorexia, dieting, certain medications, and stress. So, I'm not anorexic clearly, I do restart my diet every day, I'm not on any medications although some may think I should be, but I have 4 kids and a grown one so stress YES! Either way, I'll just deal with it. I figure it can go one of two ways, I'll either outgrow it............or outgrow everything else :).