Why Do I Keep Waking Up In The Middle Of The Night Hungry?

If you keep waking in the middle of the night feeling very hungry, you might need to change your daytime eating patterns. In rarer cases, you might have a medical condition known as nocturnal eating syndrome, but for most people, waking up hungry during the night means a lack of the right kind of food in the evening before bedtime.

Eating Habits

Going to bed on an empty stomach leads to discomfort and possibly waking during the night. Though your digestive system slows while you sleep, the gurgling and hunger pangs of a very empty stomach can disrupt your rest; however, eating a large meal just before bedtime also can cause discomfort. Experts at the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School suggest eating small snacks that you're sure won't give you indigestion or otherwise disturb your sleep. For some people, that might mean eating carbohydrates or dairy products. But, the ideal pre-bedtime snack food varies from person to person.

Nocturnal Eating Syndrome

People affected by nocturnal eating syndrome, or NES, wake up with powerful hunger pangs. They consume half of their daily calories after 6 p.m. Cravings usually focus on high-carbohydrate snack foods, including chips and biscuits. The syndrome is connected with mood and eating disorders, such as obesity. If you have NES, you'll hardly eat during the day or skip meals regularly. You might feel depressed or lethargic. In some cases, nocturnal eating syndrome involves behavior similar to sleepwalking, with people unaware of their binges until someone tells them.

Sleeping Habits

Your sleep habits influence the quality of your nighttime rest. Staying up late or going to bed too early go against your body's natural sleep signals. For example, if you go to bed at 8 p.m. every night but often wake at midnight for a snack, try eating your dinner a little later and going to bed at 9:30 or 10 p.m. Keeping to a regular sleep schedule also helps your body develop a sleep rhythm. Erratic sleep timings or going to bed with loud music on or the TV blaring can lead to general insomnia or waking with hunger.

Considerations

Eating or drinking high-caffeine substances such as chocolate or coffee just before bed often leads to interrupted sleep. This increases your chances of waking and snacking during the night. Avoid caffeine after 4 p.m. or around six hours before sleep. Some foods trigger reactions in different people. If you notice that a certain food, such as cheese or fruit, tends to make you wake up hungry at night, cut back on that food during the evening.