We all feel the need to have a late night snack from time to
time, maybe during a long night of studying or just a midnight snack to help us
fall back to sleep. But I doubt that any of us would enjoy a drug fueled pantry
raid, I mean what’s the point of eating if you can’t enjoy it? Well
unfortunately things like this really happened, it is called Nocturnal
Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and it causes people to basically “sleep eat”
A man was prescribed a drug named Zolpidem because he
suffered from insomnia, they mention him being an obese man which is probably a
contributing factor not only to NSRED but to insomnia as well. Well the man
took the drug for a short period of time to help with his problem, and one
night his wife goes looking for him and he’s miles away at his shop eating, and
when they woke him up he didn’t remember anything he had done.
Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve ever heard? Like we all
know how the commercials hastily list off all the life-threatening side effects
of drugs on tv but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anything about night eating,
and they weren’t just eating normal food, people are eating a “fist full of
salt” and buttered cigarettes” I might rather take a chance on one of the side
effects the tv commercial told me over eating a cigarette. But luckily he
stopped taking the drug and he didn’t have any more episodes.
Although the drug is the main reason for the NSRED and if on
it there is not much you can really do about it, the underlying factors that
cause insomnia and thus the need for the drug can be changed. Maintaining a
healthy weight and seeking attention for things like stress and depression can
potentially offset the risks for insomnia and help maintain your circadian rhythm.
Or if none of that helps, maybe they should try sleep
walking to a McDonalds, their ice cream machine is sure to be broken which
means no munchies for them.
I think one of the most interesting things about NSRED is the fact that most people eat food that they wouldn't normally eat while awake. What makes the brain crave unnatural combinations of food during sleep-eating episodes? I wonder if it has any connection to the nutrients the person may be lacking in his/her diet. Then again, no one needs cigarettes as part of a balanced meal! Either way, I feel like it can't be too random, even if we don't fully understand the motivation during sleep-eating episodes.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that certain sedative/hypnotic drugs induce the strange SED episodes analogous to the case described in the current study. I would like to know more about cases where SED is not an adverse reaction of a pharmaceutical drug, but rather is brought on via natural occurrence. I think that studying naturally occurring cases would pave the way to answering some of the questions that Taylor posed in her previous comment.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about advertising of side effects until you mentioned it. I found a commercial for Ambien that actually states sleep walking and eating as a side effect- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1hdWb8yBM
ReplyDeleteI definitely would not have paid attention to that part of the commercial before reading the article. I will be sure to research side effects of any medications I take in the future to prevent any surprises like eating raw chicken!