[cookfan56]

Hi, I live in Dallas TX with my husband and daughter. I've had insomnia most of my adult life. I've been given every sleeping pill and antidepressants for sleep. (I also take antidepressants for depression.) The hypnotic meds (Ambien, Lunesta, etc.) put me to sleep if I take them with a small dose of klonapin, but usually I awake an hour or two later, and eat in a sleep induced state. At this point, I am dieting and exercise at a very high level so I am not gaining weight. But everything I eat during the night is sweet or bad food. I have gone as far as removing all sweet foods, processed foods, bread, and all snacks (which I keep in the house for my family), , and taken those bags of food and locked them in my car overnight or put them on a tall shelf in the garage. Sounds crazy but true! I also have seen a hypnotist but that didn't work. Some nights I get up twice and eat. Or get up three times and eat two out of three times. Sometimes I am so out of it that I eat in bed and find wrappers in bed, last night I even threw a full gallon of milk in the garbage (!!) after sleep eating. Why the garbage I don't know.

Recently I have reduced my dose of klonapin by 1/2 and am slowly weaning off of it completey. I also am trying to replace the Ambien with herbal sleep stuff for about 3-4 nights a week. Basically I would just stay in bed, tossing and turning, if I took no sleep meds at all.

I don't smoke or drink. As I said, I exercise six days a week, I cut off coffee after 3 pm, I get up early in the morning and I don't nap during the day.

Anyhow this is just a brief intro … I have posted on many psych/sleep forums and found no help for the sleep eating.

[Monandothers]

Wow, sleep eating must be so troubling! As a gal who is constantly dieting to keep slim (especially after the birth of my beautiful daughter) I can't imagine how stressful that must be! My doc recently prescribed me with an antidepressant called mirtazapine, he wanted to start me on seraquil but I find that drug far too intense, and I just don't want to be chained to any more addictive drugs! So apparently this antidepressant helps u to sleep, I'm weary about taking it tho, what was ur experience with such medications? Do h have any advice for me? Thankyou, and lovely to meet you 😊

[cookfan56]

My experience with Seroquel was that it put me into a really deep sleep, but I gained 10 lbs within about a month. It's really important to me not to gain weight, because my depression is really tied into self-image, and I simply find it very hard to not be depressed when I'm overweight. Also, drugs like remeron and trazadone made me gain weight. The antidepressant Abilify made me gain 10 lbs in 10 days, and it wasn't water weight! It took a while to come off. To me the depression/insomnia is a double edged sword, my meds have to be balanced very carefully. I still don't get, though, why I can't sleep without sleep aids.

And the sleep eating thing really started when I moved into this new place two years ago. Prior to that I was on klonapin and lunesta together and didn't do it. But klonapin loosens your inhibitions, and lunesta being a hypnotic just intensifies the klonapin (as explained by a doctor.) Which is why I'm trying to wean off klonapin completely and give up hypnotic sleep meds. The herbal stuff is mostly tryptophan, meloatonin, valerian and a few other ingredients. They work fairly well,but my ultimate goal is to figure out why I can't sleep without drugs, or at least sleep through the night if I have to use sleep drugs.

[Monandothers]

Kilonipin sounds like it would be great for my social anxiety, I've got a huge self image problem so any drugs that make u gain weight would really be bad for me

[Martin Reed]

Unfortunately I don't have any specific tips or advice to offer regarding the sleep walking, but I did want to welcome you to Insomnia Land.

When did the sleep eating start? Was it before/after you were diagnosed with insomnia and began taking the sleeping meds?

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