eating on ambien...

Alyssa Autopsy

Alyssa Autopsy

New member
every once in a while, when i'm on ambien i pig out with no recollection of what or how much i ate. the only reason i can tell i ambien-ate is because my 2 cups worth of fried rice was gone and i'm the only person in my house who eats fried rice, plus i had about 10 empty candy wrappers and an apple core on my desk along with a peanut-butter-coated knife, AND the levels in my bags and boxes of nuts and dried veggies and dried fruits are lower, my dried bananas were completely gone, and it looks like i ate about HALF bag of goldfish. i'm estimating that i ate around 1000-ish calories that i cannot actually account for, possibly even more because nuts and peanut butter are VERY high calorie...

does anyone else have this problem? what can i do about it? i NEED my ambien for my insomnia, so i can't stop it, but the binging has to STOP.
 
My boyfriend does this a couple times a week or so. He doesn't take Ambien though, he has sleep apnea and sleepwalks really bad. He used to just cook stuff and leave it sit on the counter. He'd discover it the next morning just sitting there. Lately though, he's been eating it. He'll also get up and drink a ton of stuff. He's consuming a ton of extra calories while he sleeps now. I don't really have any advice though. I can just sympathize. I know my boyfriend gets really frustrated with it. The only thing I can think of is probably stuff you have already thought of....like not keeping high calorie stuff in the house(which isn't always possible)...or putting it up so it's out of reach and out of sight, so maybe you won't grab it in your sleep. Although, I know if my boyfriend doesn't have easily accessible things to eat(grab and go type stuff)he'll just cook something. Which scares me. He's found if he keeps his knives in the sink, he won't use them though, thank goodness.. apparently he doesn't want to wash them in his sleep. haha! He's going for his second sleep clinic visit soon, and will be getting a CPAP mask...I'm hoping that improves his sleep eating. I hope you can figure something out that works for you. :)
 
jen_renee said:
My boyfriend does this a couple times a week or so. He doesn't take Ambien though, he has sleep apnea and sleepwalks really bad. He used to just cook stuff and leave it sit on the counter. He'd discover it the next morning just sitting there. Lately though, he's been eating it. He'll also get up and drink a ton of stuff. He's consuming a ton of extra calories while he sleeps now. I don't really have any advice though. I can just sympathize. I know my boyfriend gets really frustrated with it. The only thing I can think of is probably stuff you have already thought of....like not keeping high calorie stuff in the house(which isn't always possible)...or putting it up so it's out of reach and out of sight, so maybe you won't grab it in your sleep. Although, I know if my boyfriend doesn't have easily accessible things to eat(grab and go type stuff)he'll just cook something. Which scares me. He's found if he keeps his knives in the sink, he won't use them though, thank goodness.. apparently he doesn't want to wash them in his sleep. haha! He's going for his second sleep clinic visit soon, and will be getting a CPAP mask...I'm hoping that improves his sleep eating. I hope you can figure something out that works for you. :)
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i'm glad someone can sympathize, and congrats on 95 lbs lost!! i also need to lose a lot, approximately 86 pounds, to get back to my "healthy" weight. i don't sleep-cook, when i pig out on ambien it's usually on chocolate, which is ALWAYS in the house because my grandmother likes to have chocolate every day, as do i... right now i'm having an 80 calorie block of dark chocolate, but at least dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate so i feel a bit less guilty.

oh and i was told to drink a LOT of tea after taking my ambien so that i'm full and won't eat, but then i'll be waking up at night to go pee... and the reason i'm even ON ambien is to keep me from waking up every couple of hours, and of course to help me to fall asleep... though it's not like klonpin (which i stopped taking because it was making my hair fall out) where it makes you sleepy, it's just easier to fall asleep with it in my system. and yeah i try not to keep high-calorie stuff around, but i like having little junk food snacks like my goldfish, but in moderation. usually i'll just eat 30 pieces (half a serving) for 70 calories, but when i'm on ambien i just start shoveling the food in without any thought to the calories.
 
Yeah, controlling the quantity you eat is really the bigger problem. Even low calorie stuff adds up if you eat enough of it while you're sleeping. My boyfriend does the same thing... he'll eat most of whatever is left in the container, if not all of it, and is definitely not concerned with the calories at all.

...and I love chocolate too. I'm the same way, I'll have a small piece just about every day. Makes me feel less deprived, and as long as it fits into my calories, I don't feel guilty about it. lol.
 
jen_renee said:
Yeah, controlling the quantity you eat is really the bigger problem. Even low calorie stuff adds up if you eat enough of it while you're sleeping. My boyfriend does the same thing... he'll eat most of whatever is left in the container, if not all of it, and is definitely not concerned with the calories at all.

...and I love chocolate too. I'm the same way, I'll have a small piece just about every day. Makes me feel less deprived, and as long as it fits into my calories, I don't feel guilty about it. lol.
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well i'm kinda weird about food because i am considered EDNOS... i feel guilty if i eat anything over 800 calories a day, even though i KNOW i have to eat at LEAST 1200 to continue to lose weight... i've been ignoring my ED thoughts (i feel like purging when i eat something junky or greasy) pretty well but it makes it hard. but when im on the ambien im just thinking FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD with NO thought of the calories either, same as your guy.

i would love to eat a chocolate donut with a mocha for breakfast, a pb&j sandwich with a few kit kat bars for lunch, ramen and chocolate milk for dinner, and chocolate ice cream for dessert xP every. single. day. but i know i can't. thankfully my carnation breakfast drinks are only 150 calories and are chocolate, AND have tons of vitamins in them, so that and dark chocolate are my not-so-guilty pleasures :p
 
I know this might sound nuts, but have you tried a natural supplement to help you sleep at all? I have bipolar and when I'm on a manic high I DO NOT SLEEP. I feel tired, but cannot get to sleep or stay asleep. So I take a herb tablet called Valerian. It was recommended to me by a Psychiatrist, and since I started taking it I have not looked back. I found that other sleeping tablets would make me feel crap the next day, or make me sleep for 20 hours. In Australia, Ambien is not allowed to be used long term because of the disturbing effects it has on people.
 
aussiegal said:
I know this might sound nuts, but have you tried a natural supplement to help you sleep at all? I have bipolar and when I'm on a manic high I DO NOT SLEEP. I feel tired, but cannot get to sleep or stay asleep. So I take a herb tablet called Valerian. It was recommended to me by a Psychiatrist, and since I started taking it I have not looked back. I found that other sleeping tablets would make me feel crap the next day, or make me sleep for 20 hours. In Australia, Ambien is not allowed to be used long term because of the disturbing effects it has on people.
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yes i have, natural sleep aids don't work for me, i used to take huge doses of melatonin, too. didn't help. i've also been on seroquel for sleep, but the ambien actually works. and i've been on it for a long time and the only side effects i get from it are the occasional snacking without fully remembering.
 
My husband and I both suffer from insomnia. He takes Elevil and I take Flexoril and we both use Melatonin. He was on Ambien and was doing all kinds of crazy things that he couldn't remember the next day. He stopped taking it when he left early one morning and drove off the road into a tree. The air bag or seat belt practically took off his ear, but the doctor was able to stitch it up in surgery. I am of the opinion that Ambien is really bad news. You might talk to your doctor to see if there is something else you could take.
 
i actually decided to just stop taking it. i can sleep without it, i was just continuing to use it out of habit, but since i no longer NEED it, i don't need to keep paying $20 a month for it.
 
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