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Eating during your sleep cycle?

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
Does anyone need to get up to eat part way through their sleep cycle? If so, what do you eat and what does it help with?

I am managing 4-5 hours of decent sleep when I first go to bed. I have managed to make this happen by eating 1 to 1.5 hours before I sleep. After that, I need to get up to pee every 1-2 hours. On top of that I get very vivid and emotional dreams after the 4-5 hours of decent sleep. I believe it is either my brain cleaning itself out of toxins and/or a blood sugar problem.
I don't feel hungry until morning. I eat low histamine Autoimmune Paleo. My blood sugar is nicely balanced on 3 meals during the day.

Thank you :)
 

Never Give Up

Collecting improvements, until there's a cure.
Messages
971
Do you feel you need to eat because your stomach is irritated? If so it might be reflux. There are lots of over the counter meds that work great, Zantac would be my first choice.
 

whodathunkit

Senior Member
Messages
1,160
It's likely a blood sugar issue. When your blood sugar drops too low at night your adrenals get stressed and dumps a bunch of cortisol and other hormones to stimulate the liver to dump sugar back into the bloodstream. These adrenal hormones are what wake you up, and messes up your subsequent sleep. Probably the extra circulating blood sugar is what makes you pee. That and trying to clear the hormones. It happens to a lot of people. Used to happen to me all the time. Still does sometimes. I don't sleep through the night, ever, but that's probably due to other issues. I normally sleepwalk through getting up to pee. Barely remember.

Ray Peat says he keeps a glass of juice or something by his bed for when this happens. Supposedly you drink it as soon as you wake up inappropriately, and it fixes the problem. He says he goes right back to sleep. I have blood sugar issues so was always too chicken to try this. Now my blood sugar is pretty close to normal I don't have the issue any more. Just passing it along as food for thought.

Vivid dreams can relate to both thyroid hormones and acetylcholine.
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,196
Location
Canada
I have to wake up and eat partway through unless I eat quite a bit the night before. I have to make sure a fair bit of it is protein as well. It's hard to eat enough sometimes with a limited diet.
 

ryan31337

Senior Member
Messages
664
Location
South East, England
Yup, same experience here. Tend to wake up very alert & needing to pee after ~4hrs and am unable to get sleepy or warm again for 2-3 hours. Often I'll wake with headache/migraine at the same time too. If I eat I warm up, relax and get back off much quicker.

A decent portion of food (egg sandwich + some fruit usually) right before bed usually helps prevent it being too bad.
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,196
Location
Canada
I also get cold when I wake up in the night, even if I wake up warm, if I get up to eat when I lie back down I am very cold within 20-30 minutes and then can't sleep. I've learned I have to turn my heater on in order to be able to go back to sleep, even if it's not very cold out or I am hot when I first wake up. No amount of blankets or extra clothing seems to help, I will lie there shivering and even the air on my face will feel cold.

So I basically have to count on waking up halfway through my sleep, must eat both a protein and a carb and then must turn the heater on in order to go back to sleep. Gee it would be nice to have one of those 'low maintenance' bodies...
 
Last edited:

CFS_for_19_years

Hoarder of biscuits
Messages
2,396
Location
USA
It's likely a blood sugar issue. When your blood sugar drops too low at night your adrenals get stressed and dumps a bunch of cortisol and other hormones to stimulate the liver to dump sugar back into the bloodstream. These adrenal hormones are what wake you up, and messes up your subsequent sleep. Probably the extra circulating blood sugar is what makes you pee. That and trying to clear the hormones. It happens to a lot of people. Used to happen to me all the time. Still does sometimes. I don't sleep through the night, ever, but that's probably due to other issues. I normally sleepwalk through getting up to pee. Barely remember.

I agree it's possibly a blood sugar problem. Have you considered buying a glucose meter (sometimes you can get them for free), and using it in the middle of the night when you awaken?

I am managing 4-5 hours of decent sleep when I first go to bed. I have managed to make this happen by eating 1 to 1.5 hours before I sleep. After that, I need to get up to pee every 1-2 hours. On top of that I get very vivid and emotional dreams after the 4-5 hours of decent sleep. I believe it is either my brain cleaning itself out of toxins and/or a blood sugar problem.

Your kidneys/heart may not be working very well. When you lie down at night, fluid that was held in your legs and the lower part of your body during the day now have a chance to circulate to your kidneys and be filtered out. To test this, and to perhaps solve what is a circulation or kidney problem, recline on a couch for 2-3 hours before bedtime and see if you start peeing before bedtime.

I would mention your night-time hunger/frequent night-time peeing/vivid dreams to your doctor. There needs to be someone who gives you good answers to your questions.
 

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
Update: I've started having a snack around 4am and have been sleeping better. Not a huge improvement yet but an improvement! Nightmares are massively reduced and needing to pee has improved a little. I think I'll continue to experiment. Also trying to eat more during the day as I know I don't eat enough.

@CFS_for_19_years many thanks for the suggestions. I have tried lying down before bed and it makes no difference. I've even tried lying with my legs up the wall and nothing happens!

In the research that I've done so far all of my issues (night time peeing, nightmares and night time waking) can all be explained by low blood sugar.
 

whodathunkit

Senior Member
Messages
1,160
Also trying to eat more during the day as I know I don't eat enough.
That can cause overall stress and cortisol levels to rise, which can then precipiate sleep problems. When I chronically undereat, I don't sleep well. A few days of normal calorie intake usually fixes it.

Glad to hear of your improvement! :thumbsup: