Sara is a 48-year-old mother of 2, who is worried about her night eating. She is never hungry in the morning, so she skips breakfast or only eats a bite during her hectic morning routine. Her job keeps her busy, stressed and running during the day, so she may grab a bite to eat while she is at her desk or on the run.
Toward the middle of the afternoon, she starts to feel tired, sometimes even drowsy, but she grabs a snack and pushes through the day.
When she gets home, she handles the needs of her kids and eats dinner herself too, but doesn’t feel satisfied. She feels tense in the evening and it turns into one long eating fest, sometimes grazing continuously until she falls asleep. At night, she can’t seem to stop eating. She worries that she won’t fall asleep unless her stomach is full and sometimes gets up at night to eat.
Sara feels stressed and depressed about not being able to lose weight, and she knows that her night eating pattern is not good for her health. But she feels helpless to change the night eating pattern.
Sara blames her night eating on poor self-control. She believes that she should be able to control her night eating behavior. She is frustrated and angry that she is sabotaging her health and weight loss goals, but this only adds to her stress.
What’s really going on with night eating?
When the night eating starts, Sara justifies it by telling herself that she didn’t have much to eat earlier in the day. But then she can’t seem to stop. And she always ends up feeling bad because of the night eating, both physically and emotionally.
Even though she desperately wants to stop eating at night, she feels helpless to change the night eating pattern.
What’s really happening is that Sara is soothing her anxiety. She feels tense and anxious and often has trouble falling asleep. The night eating helps her to relax and fall asleep easier. Unfortunately, it just maintains the pattern.
What to do about night eating?
Sara needs to not only make lifestyle changes to try to reduce stress, but also use stress reduction strategies to reduce anxiety. By address the stress and anxiety that drives night eating, Sara will be addressing the problem more directly and have less desire for eating at night.
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