You might want to think twice about taking a medication for insomnia, especially since improving your sleep may be as easy as eating a plate of pasta. A recent report by the FDA expressed concern about the many side effects being caused by popular prescription sleep aids. One of the strangest, but apparently not uncommon, problems is "sleep-eating."

Many people have reported waking up in the morning and finding cracker and candy wrappers in their beds or going into the kitchen and seeing the remnants of a meal or even newly baked cookies or cake. This nighttime eating while asleep was not a rare occurrence for those who experienced it; it happened often enough to cause noticeable weight gain. That's not surprising since snack foods like candy and cookies or chips, rather than cottage cheese or lettuce are, the sleep–eater’s foods of choice.

This nighttime eating while asleep raises all sorts of questions. Why did the sleeper feel impelled to eat rather than sleep walk or maybe sleep weed the garden? Was the sleeper hungry or dreaming of food before getting out of bed and going into the kitchen? One of our clients asked when discussing this, "Do you think calories count if you eat food while fast asleep?" Another said, "If there was a sleeping pill that would get me to sleep exercise, I would take it."

This behavior may be affecting people who are on diets. Imagine counting calories, weighing and measuring food, going to the gym, drinking glasses of water during the day and then having all your good work undone by sleep-eating in the middle of the night. And you don’t even have the pleasure of tasting and enjoying the food since you are asleep.

In an ideal world, people wouldn’t need sleep aids at all. Next best would be to have effective medications available without side effects for people who cannot fall or stay asleep without prescription drugs. But until this occurs, one way of tackling the problem is to investigate whether the daytime eating habits of the sleep eaters may be precipitating the nighttime eating. We have encountered clients who told us that if they restricted the amount of carbohydrates they consumed during the day, they would wake up several hours after falling asleep and eat the foods they had been trying to avoid. This was particularly true of people who had put themselves on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet.

As one of our clients put it: "You know when you don't drink enough during the day and wake up thirsty at night? Well, it was the same with me when I didn't eat enough bread during the day. I would sort of wake up, stumble to the kitchen, toast 2 or 3 slices of bread, spread some jelly on them, eat them and then go back to bed. I sort of knew what I was doing and if I had been totally awake, I could have stopped myself. But I was in that zombie-like state where I behaved like a robot."

We know from our research that the brain demands that we eat carbohydrates. When we do, the brain makes the essential brain chemical serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating appetite, mood and mental energy. Interestingly, too little serotonin can result in feelings of anxiety, restlessness, inability to stop obsessive thinking, and agitation. These symptoms can make it very difficult to go to sleep and people who have followed diets that restrict carbohydrates often report insomnia.

When our clients initially report sleep problems, one of the first things we suggest is following a snack and meal plan that increases serotonin during the late afternoon and evening. Simply by eating a small carbohydrate snack like pretzels late in the afternoon and eating a carbohydrate main course dinner like pasta will increase serotonin within a half an hour. The serotonin remains high through the evening, allowing the dieter to feel relaxed and calm. Falling asleep is easier and our clients no longer find themselves awakening during the early morning hours to eat. In fact, their usual complaint is that they are falling asleep much earlier than they used to and so are missing some of their favorite late-night shows.

We don’t know what causes the sleep-carbohydrate snacking among people on the prescription sleep aids. But our suggestion is to see whether carbo-loading for sleep might prevent this side effect. By boosting serotonin levels in the early evening, an easy thing to do just by eating main course carbohydrates at dinnertime, the sleep eater may stop the 3 AM munching on candy and chips altogether.

Copyright © 2007 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD, and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD

Authors
Judith J. Wurtman, PhD, has been recognized worldwide for decades of pioneering research into the relationship of food, mood, brain, and appetite. Dr. Wurtman received her PhD in cell biology from MIT and took additional training as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in nutrition/obesity. The author of five books for the general public, she has written more than 40 peer-reviewed articles for professional publications. She splits her time between Boston and Miami.

Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD, received her master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University and her medical degree from George Washington University. Her articles on weight, stress, and lifestyle have appeared in numerous publications. With Judith Wurtman, she founded the Adara Weight Loss Centers in the Boston, Miami and San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives.

They are the authors of The Serotonin Power Diet: Use Your Brain’s Natural Chemistry to Cut Cravings, Curb Emotional Overeating, and Lose Weight. Published by Rodale. January 2007; $24.95US/$31.00CAN; 1-59486-346-6.

For more information, please visit www.serotoninpowerdiet.com