I keep some cooked food in my house for the people I live with. So eradicating cooked foods from the house is not an option for me.

It happens nearly every night.

I get up in the middle of the night, *barely* awake, and rummage in the fridge. Half the time, I end up eating something cooked.

I'm developing an approach to this. I have been finding some success with always leaving something sweet, something savory, and a big glass of ice water by my bed. I'm about to try positive suggestion.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has any experience with this. It's like sleep-walking. I'm slightly more aware than a sleep-walker of what I'm doing when I get up to eat in the night. But not alert enough to always make a rational choice about what to snack on.

Has anyone ever beat this, or know someone who has?

-KP

KP,

Is it possible you are describing this?:

[www.webmd.com]

Ha! It is totally Night Eating Syndrome. Great, now I have a box for it. I still need to know how to heal it back up again... I kind of developed this over the course of several years. I know what its called, now how do I treat it. This thing says drugs, but doesn't tell you what kind. and it says treat anxiety. Hm. Scullcap. Valerian. Hops. But those will make me sleepy. I just don't yet get it. But that was good!!! Progress!!!

KP

KP,

When you do this, aren't you supposed to be sleeping instead? Maybe valerian wouldn't go amiss . . .

I had a roommate in my teens who I'd catch totally asleep and buried in the fridge. She'd be shovelling handfuls of rice into her mouth (and getting it everywhere!) and tearing off and devouring leaves of raw cabbage. It's was freaky! But she had major issues with food and was practically starving herself when awake. I think her body was desperate to get nutrients in any way possible.
With that in mind, have you considered using fitday to track your nutrition intake and see how you're doing? It can be a handy tool for pinpointing a deficiency. I would not include the midnight raidings in the equation but would keep track of them and do a separate profile to see what it is you're unconciously craving.

I used to eat at night as a teenager - I was deeply stressed at the time with huge family problems. When the problems were resolved the night eating stopped.

Its more habitual than anything else. Its not got to do with depression. And I don't starve myself during the day. However, I don't get hungry till late in the afternoon. It's like eating dinner *sparks* my hunger. Its a cycle. I stuff at night. Then in the AM, I of course dont want food. Since going raw, it's gotten a bit better. I'm going to try valerian, probably.

The only other thing I've thought of came from a book I read on near death experiences. This little girl was brought back after being dead for several minutes, and she retained a lot of what she saw while she was dead. She said the angels told her that when you wake up from sleeping, you shouldn't go back to bed. It had occurred to me that maybe I'm just waking up early, and should stay awake. Trying this hasn't been working for me. I'm awake, but in a really groggy way. It's a serious challenge to use that sleep interruption to just *wake up*. But I havent given up on this idea because I think I could still keep at it and try harder to not go back to bed.

If any of you readers have been high-raw for over a year or so, can I ask you how much sleep do you get a night on average?

-KP

when I was high raw for over a year I slept a normal amount of time, same as usual. Good sleep, I woke rested, I had lots of energy but it wasn't like I could run on barely any sleep like some people say they do. In fact I get way less sleep now and am still very active. I think that's due to unhealthy insomnia now though...

Would you consider a lock on the fridge, just to make it difficult for you to get it open in a half conscious state? Perhaps having to focus on it would wake you up enough to resist the temptation. I have one that keeps the baby from being able to open the fridge door, it's "stuck" on so I can remove it later.