What are the best solutions and ways to treat sleep eating?
Learn how to avoid common precipitants such assleep deprivationand about the role of medications in treating sleep eating.
Review treatments of sleep eating disorders and finally stop those unwanted midnight snacks.
Verywell / Dennis Madamba
Verywell / Dennis Madamba
What Is Sleep Eating?
It is one of the behaviors that can occur in sleep.
Along with sleepwalking, sleep talking, andnight terrors, sleep eating is classified as aparasomnia.
Sleep eating occurs during partial or complete unconsciousness.
The eating is uncontrolled and may involve odd combinations of foods.
SRED is more common in women than men (females outnumber males 2:1 to 3:1).
Dangers
Eating while asleep may lead to dangerous situations.
People with sleep eating have been known to perform very complex actions while remaining asleep.
Frequently, the food preparation is somewhat clumsy, resulting in messes in the kitchen.
Once the food is consumed, stomach upset, bloating, and even weight gain may result.
Fortunately, treatment options for sleep eating exist.
Causes
The most important treatment for sleep eating is to identify and treat any coexisting sleep disorders.
Most commonly these includesleep apneaandrestless leg syndrome.
Other medications reported to cause sleep eating include Halcion (or triazolam) and Zyprexa (or olanzapine).
Many people with sleep eating have a prior history of other parasomnias, such as sleepwalking.
People who sleepwalk and begin to sleep eat, often begin to exclusively sleep eat from that point forward.
By following basicrecommendationsto improve sleep hygiene, sleep deprivation and fragmentation will be reduced.
Each of these things may cause these mixed states of consciousness to occur more often.
In select circumstances, it may be necessary to use medication to treat sleep eating.
If you are interested in seeking treatment for sleep eating, start by speaking with your healthcare provider.
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