Night Eating Syndrome Support Group

Eight days ago, I did the same thing I do every night - I walked into my kitchen at 10:00 and looked in the pantry to see what I could eat before bed, hoping that somehow MAYBE it would keep me full and asleep all night. I grabbed the box of Cinnamon Cheerios my daughter had been raving about and poured myself a bowl. After my snack, I realized that I had forgotten to take the One A Day Women's multi-vitamin I had just recently started taking. In the back of my mind, I remember thinking that I hope the vitamin wouldn't keep me up. I'd never taken it at bedtime before.

As per my usual routine, I fell asleep at around 11:30. Next thing I know, my alarm is going off. OMG - did I just sleep through the night??? I went straight to the kitchen to see if maybe I just didn't remember getting up, looking for evidence of a nighttime snack. Nothing. And then it hit me - pangs of hunger. I'm never hungry in the morning, so this was confirmation to me that I had actually made it through a whole night without eating!

So, every night since February 20th, I have followed the same routine with the exact same results.

Words can not describe the elation I feel every morning that I wake up feeling hungry, knowing that I have made it through another night.

The only thing that makes sense to me, is that perhaps all the fiber in the cereal is helping to keep me full, while the multi-vitamin (taken at bedtime) is supplying some kind of nutrient that my body/brain is missing that causes the imbalance. I don't know what it is, but there has got to be something to it. I have suffered with NES for the last 10 years, and now I've been NES-free for 8 days!

I would love it if some of you would give this little method a try. I'm curious if it will have the same effect on others that it does on me. Here's what you do:

1. Eat a bowl of Cheerios about an hour before you go to sleep.

2. Take multi-vitamin about 30 minuted before sleep.

Easy! Hope it works for you!! Let me know.

Jennifer

I will be trying this tonight! thanks for the post.

I have begun to think that NES is probably from a deficiency. It seems to affect most commonly either people who have had eating disorders, exercise excessively or severely overweight people who are suffering from malnutrition as a result of poor eating habits. It all makes very much sense. I may try taking my vitamins at bedtime instead of first thing in the morning and see if it helps at all. I think all of us are just so desperate for a solution that we would do just about anything to find it.

However... I think other forms of NES (like NSRED, etc...) are a parasomnia, and not because of a deficiency. Some people can experience overlapping of certain stages of sleep and wakefulness. It's pretty creepy but it happens. The documentary "Sleep Runners" has a lot of information on parasomnias, but the solutions they provide is simply medication... which doesn't always work for every person.

I am sure inadequate nutrtition just adds flames to the fire, but I also think us NESers have alot of food issues and need to make sure we are on a schedule that keeps us full all the time, is binge trigger-free, and 100% natural or very clost to that. Since I have been successful, I have eaten 6 times a day everyday at about the same times, stay within a 500 calorie fluctuation range, have not really binged, and have lessened my excersize by about 75%. I think all these factors have helped. Oh yeah and I made sweet tea for myself to drink during the night each day as I still get up several times.

I will give this a try. It can't hurt. Thank you for sharing.

When we do take our supplements, they should always be taken with food. Preferably fruits or something high in fiber if the fruits are not available. It increases the absorption of the supplements, and whatever our bodies don't use will just exit our bodies later on. I used to make the mistake of not eating breakfast, yet still taking all my supplements in the morning when I had no appetite. Now, even if I had a bad night, I will take a piece of fruit with my morning supplements to increase absorption.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have learned more about how this works for me. I have had two nights in the last week that I got up to eat since adding my vitamins and Cheerios to my late night ritual, so I started looking at what I did differently. I found that if I eat any kind of sugar (except natural sugars from fruits) after dinnertime, I will wake up to eat.

The first night it happened, I was SO disappointed. My daughter had brought home Girl Scout Cookies, which we had for "dessert" at around 8:00 pm. I continued with my nightly routine, and found myself in the kitchen at 1:28 am - back in the cookies!! I felt that burning sting of failure, and started to doubt that I had really found my "cure". So the next night, I didn't have anything sweet after dinner, and with my vitamin and Cheerios routine, slept right on through the night.

A couple nights later I decided to purposefully test the sugar theory again, and had a brownie after dinner. Lo and behold, I was up at 2am.

I have found that I CAN eat a chocolate fiber bar at around 8pm, which will curb my sweet tooth without causing me to wake up during the night. Definitely a win-win.

Anyway, I know we are all different, and the causes of our NES are as unique as we are. What works for me may not work for anyone else, but you never know until you try. I know when I first started visiting this forum, I was looking for ANYTHING that worked for someone else, and I tried many of the suggestions I read in posts just like this one. Unfortunately, nothing worked until I stumbled upon this vitamin/Cheerios combo. But one thing is for sure - I am thankful for the support from people like Ms. Ashley and Rawraider, who faithfully keep up with all us "NES'ers". Without you guys, many of us would still feel alone in this battle.

Thanks everyone!

That is really useful insight! Come to think of it.... I have been eating more sweets closer to bedtime lately. Perhaps this has had some effect on my nights because they have been considerably worse than usual. Thank you for posting this, hun, because you reminded me that my best nights are after a day of no sugar except for fruits. Time to refocus myself and get my butt into gear for some better nights of sleep and less NES!!

Ash I think that's true- Rawraider and I have been discussing that also. I have tried to cut back on sugar but its the diet coke I think that I have with dinner or after that gets me. I really need to nix that. I still get my sugar intake thru Kelloggs cereal or the like- yogurt and fruit also. Sometimes the crunch and sugar of cereals are enough and way more satisfying than a cookie. I find the LONGER it takes me to eat something, the more satisfied I am. Whereas with a cookie, its done in a bite!