Recently I have been hearing a lot of clients coming to me struggling with waking in the middle of the night to binge. While every one of them have had unique situations and causes for these binges, here are some places to start if you feel like you are struggling with night bingeing as well.
First and foremost if you have been dieting or in any sort of deficit then night binges can absolutely be associated with not eating enough consistently. So that would be the first thing to get curious about.
So often when people come off of counting points/calories/macros/you name it they have an idea in their mind of how much they “should” be eating, the problem is that our bodies are a lot more complicated than a simple math equation and binges might be your big red flag that you need to eat more.
That can be a hard thing to wrap your head around especially if it has been awhile, but what is important to keep in mind when trying to eat enough for your body is that if you have been in a deficit, your body will try and make up for that time by increasing your appetite when allowed until it can level out and trust that it will be fed enough consistently. (This can be scary, I know. Having support when going through this process can help it feel less overwhelming and more manageable)
Next is to look at how you are managing food thoughts throughout your day. If throughout your day you have a lot of “should’s” going through your head like:
“I shouldn’t be eating this”
“I should only have one”
“I shouldn’t have any more carbs today”
“I should be eating this instead of that”
Then… you’re probably building up some pressure throughout the day with mental restriction. I like to think of this as a pressure gauge. The more these thoughts run a muck without being addressed the more guilt you feel for not following them or the more pressure you feel for restricting them. Both of these build pressure on this gauge until you finally go to bed.
So if your night looks like:
“I have been good all day”
Then you go to bed and relax your mind.
Your mind finally relaxes from the stress of the “should’s” of the day and you wake up unable to control it anymore.
The pressure is simply too high and you feel out of control. At its most basic it is a survival mechanism because your body feels like it is being restricted and in our biological makeup restriction feels like a famine no matter the deficit.
So what’s my point here, as one of my clients put it:
“Stop shoulding yourself”
And lastly, and I mean lastly, look at how emotions and stress are impacting you. I say to do this last because often we are so quick to blame emotional eating without first addressing eating enough and mental restriction. While even when those are the culprits emotions can be involved, it is not the first place to start.
When looking at emotions the days after you do have a night eating episode reflect on how your day went and how you were feeling. Often it’s another pressure gauge connected to stress. Stress builds throughout the day without being managed and the pressure overflows at night as a way to cope and comfort. Now there can be a lot of other emotions and needs involved, but stress is definitely a common one.
So just to recap: start by making sure you are eating enough and consistently. Then become more aware of the “should’s” throughout your day and start working on managing those thoughts to more neutral ones. And lastly factor in emotional needs and how you can better cope with those emotions. Keeping in mind that you are absolutely allowed to cope with food, but when it is your only coping mechanism or really impacting how you feel physically trying some other strategies might be nice!
And as always, if you want help tackling your night bingeing and feel stuck or overwhelmed, check out private coaching with the button below to get individualized support that will equip you with the tools you need to find food freedom for good!
