Beyond Multitasking
April 10, 2010 7:16 PM   Subscribe

Do you have SRED? Sleep related eating disorder. There is help.
posted by Xurando (29 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
That 30 Rock episode was REAL?
posted by signalnine at 7:44 PM on April 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


Imagine a junkie. Strung out, famine-thin, puke-spatterd, blod-spotted-sleeve junkie, who apart from the visible signs gets along just fine, can function at his job, can be a good parent to his kids (who will have to watch him die young). Now, imagine he's decided to kick the habit. Can't go cold turkey, as that would literally kill him, or break him to the point where he's back at the needle full throttle. He has to ramp back... and ramping back sends him into terrible spasms of pain and need. He's got will, he's a conscious and courageous human being in firm, conscious control of his bodily urges.

He's got a cooler full of H, the primo stuff, and worse, there's more at the corner store, $4.00 for enough to get you back into bliss, and he can go through $12.00 worth at a go. He can ignore that it's there, while he's got control.

When he's asleep? Or delirious from not sleeping, as his withdrawal has him up all night clutching his belly, and trying not to think of that cooler full of H downstairs?

Yeah.

Haters will insist it's simply a matter of will. People living it... the recidivism rate for obesity is worse than for any drug, including heroin, nicotine and cocaine. Will only gets you so far.

And, as there will doubtlessly be at least one licensed physician who will respond to this derisively... how is it there are so few obese doctors? Shouldn't they be as representative of the population at large, struggle as mightily with their weight? Why aren't there any 400 lb MD's going in for stomach stapling, or gastic bypass, or lap band surgery?

Another question... what kind of drugs decrease appetite, or increase metabolism and/or muscle mass to absorb those extra calories?

One more.

Are they safer than surgery, but reviled and taboo because pro-athletes cheat with them? Would it be easier to prescribe them to a colleague than someone off the street?
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:45 PM on April 10, 2010 [2 favorites]


Another question... what kind of drugs decrease appetite, or increase metabolism and/or muscle mass to absorb those extra calories?

My grandmother was on marinol, which my understanding is based on the marijuana-pot.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 7:50 PM on April 10, 2010


From the NYTimes link:

One of the most terrifying parasomnias, Dr. Schenck said, is sleep paralysis, which really does not fit into either of the main categories. It hits people as they are about to fall asleep or are about to wake up, rendering them unable to move.

This is TERRIFYING, seriously. I truly thought I was dying the first time it happened. I quit sleeping on my back and so it happens only rarely now, but...scary.
posted by sallybrown at 7:51 PM on April 10, 2010


how is it there are so few obese doctors?

It's all the nicotine they smoke in cigarettes.
posted by bunnycup at 7:52 PM on April 10, 2010 [3 favorites]


Slap*Happy

I'm totally confused by your post. People eat more than they would like for all sorts of reasons. This doesn't make them bad, or the equivalent of smackheads. As an aside, I guess you're not familiar with many junkies, they tend to be much more presentable than your fevered imagination suggests.
posted by howfar at 7:56 PM on April 10, 2010 [2 favorites]


Howfar: Smackheads aren't bad. They just are... they got into junk for a variety of reasons. Judging them is a sucker's game.

Overeating is addictive, as bad if not worse than smack. This is experimentally, journal-published, reported on NPR's Science Fridays with Ira Flatow, verifiable truth.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:06 PM on April 10, 2010


Can I have your references and assessments of them please? I know that the addictive model of overeating has a fair bit of experimental support, but I'm not sure that it goes so far as covering the statement you have made.
posted by howfar at 8:09 PM on April 10, 2010


sleep paralysis science
posted by hortense at 8:14 PM on April 10, 2010


This is TERRIFYING, seriously. I truly thought I was dying the first time it happened. I quit sleeping on my back and so it happens only rarely now, but...scary.

This was definitely extremely scary. I was actually in a dream-like state while going through it, so I thought someone was sitting on me and trying to suffocate me. I've noticed that it happens a lot less when I'm not as stressed and when I sleep for a decent amount of hours.
posted by movicont at 8:28 PM on April 10, 2010


Zznom...Zzznom...ZZzznom..
posted by sexyrobot at 8:35 PM on April 10, 2010 [7 favorites]


Here is an entire blog about sleep-eating.
I did not write it. It mystifies me.

You Have To Always Love Me More: The Thrill of Sleep Eating, the Agony of Agony.
posted by redsparkler at 8:38 PM on April 10, 2010


I've been known to sing in my sleep (christmas carols), to sleepwalk (even climbing furniture), to even engage in long makeout sessions with my wife while sleeping and for years I used to regularly experience sleep paralysis but I'm fairly sure that I have never eaten anything while asleep.
posted by oraknabo at 9:07 PM on April 10, 2010


Is this a thing? I mean does this happen a lot? Can't tell from the links. But I'd like to see it in action.

All I can think of is Ed Norton from the Honeymooners. He loved LuLu his dog.

Remember that episode?

Loo Loo!
posted by Splunge at 9:10 PM on April 10, 2010


BTW, Slappy. Since you chimed in with your humorous take on addiction. Here's some funny for you.

Kicking a a heroin habit is like killing yourself. But without the bliss of death. It's like knowing that you can get the crap from anyone that comes to your bedside. And believe me they come by.

But you know that you HAVE to do it. Without a drink, a smoke or a shot. So your buddies come around with the thing that will make you feel better. And you tell them no. And they ask you why? And you are in pain that transcends pain. And they show you a bag and a spike. And you say no. Knowing that THAT BAG, THAT SPIKE will make you right. Not even high, just good human. Not a vomiting, gut twisted shitting freak.

And there you lie, thinking to yourself, I've been here for 3 days. THREE DAYS. And my gut is in a fucking knot and I'm getting clean. And there in front of you is the fucking holy goddamn grail. And your buddy is GHOD ALMIGHTY giving you an out of the vomit, the cold the shakes the wormlike existance that you believe is the rest of your damn life.

Yeah, there is the promised land. And you say.

No, thanks.

And god leaves laughing at you.

And you lie in bed thinking, fuck. What did I just do. What's his number? Should i call him back. Maybe out of the window?

And he wouldn't come back for all the love in the world. And you realise that there is no love in the worl.

And so you wrap yourself in a wet stinking sheet and hope that you die for another day.
posted by Splunge at 9:33 PM on April 10, 2010 [4 favorites]


"Workin' on my night cheese...."
posted by tristeza at 9:41 PM on April 10, 2010 [2 favorites]


Yeah, it's real. I used to do it quite a bit a few years ago, but I honestly thought it was just me. I had no idea it was an actual disorder. (of course these days, what isn't?)

About once a week or so, I'd get up in the morning and notice all the ice cream/cookies/cake/whatever in the house would be gone. I would kind of vaguely half-remember maybe getting up in the middle of the night, or did I dream that? Surely I didn't actually get out of bed and eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's, did I? Umm, yeah. Afraid so. And talk about embarrassing! Try explaining to your SO that you ate half a chocolate cake while you were sleeping. Seriously.

I still do it, but as far as I can tell, it's only a couple of times a year (that I know of).
posted by ValkoSipuliSuola at 9:47 PM on April 10, 2010


Splunge: There is very little or no pain. You simply say "Yes" when the friend comes around and you don't know why. You wish you didn't. You spend days or weeks examining why you should say no next time, steeling yourself for that act of will. Yet the next time, there is little or no pain, and you say yes, despite your most feverish desire to say no.

The frustration... man. I'm dying, my joints giving out, heart beating out of rhythm, waking up suffocating as my body doesn't breathe on its own anymore, teeth rotting out of my head from the acid reflux... my mom and wife pleading... my carefully cultivated bicycle habit ruining my knees (yet curing my asthma!), not slimming me a bit. Just makes saying yes more frequent.

No fever. No sweats. No itching skin. No clutching, cramping nausea. Just a complete loss of self control, even as you howl and rage inside your head as you watch yourself do it, comfortably, without pain, at your own kitchen table.

I once knew a girl so fat, she had to clean herself after a shit with a wet rag laced through a toilet brush. She's dead, now. I once knew a guy who had gastric bypass surgery. His addiction had figured out ways around it less than a year in, bursting a stitch. He's dead now.

I'm not very far down on the list of who's next.

This is my self-imposed three post per thread limit. See you in the next fat thread. ('Cause this isn't going to be settled now. Or this year.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:30 PM on April 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


how is it there are so few obese doctors?

Take a guess?

Shouldn't they be as representative of the population at large, struggle as mightily with their weight?

And how exactly would propose enforcing that? Making it illegal for them to diet and exercise? It seems obvious that someone with a deep understanding of the body and biochemistry would have less trouble keeping the weight off.
posted by delmoi at 11:23 PM on April 10, 2010


OK delmoi - come on then, tell us why there are so few obese doctors!

Shouldn't they be as representative of the population at large, struggle as mightily with their weight?

And how exactly would propose enforcing that?


Are you deliberately misinterpreting here? What Slap*Happy is saying is "All other things being equal, wouldn't you expect ...?"

It seems obvious that someone with a deep understanding of the body and biochemistry would have less trouble keeping the weight off.

It might seem obvious, but it isn't. Rational understanding is the least of it. I am guessing you have not struggled with any kind of addiction or compulsion in your life - and if that's the case, congratulations, and please keep your judgements to yourself.
posted by kcds at 5:28 AM on April 11, 2010


I know sleep eating seems ridiculous to people who don't sleep eat, but imagine how ridiculous I feel when I wake up with peanut butter in my beard and don't remember why or how (though it's not hard to guess). I always thought it was pretty funny, but it's good to know I'm not the only one.
posted by the jam at 8:56 AM on April 11, 2010


I read this as SHEEP related eating disorder. Yes, yes I do have a problem.

with sheep! they're just so tasty!
posted by arnicae at 10:07 AM on April 11, 2010


but imagine how ridiculous I feel when I wake up with peanut butter in my beard

Yeah, I once woke up in bed with a dirty spoon in my hand. It's kind of creepy, actually.
posted by ValkoSipuliSuola at 11:43 AM on April 11, 2010


This is my self-imposed three post per thread limit.

Well, that's too bad because I still don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

It's always bizarre to me when people have that strange sort of pride about their addictions. Like they were some kind of war veteran. I mean, I'm not proud of the chronic tonsillitis I had when I was a teenager.
posted by cmoj at 11:51 AM on April 11, 2010


This is nowhere near as bad as my sleep murderin'.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:51 AM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]


Isn't the solution simple? Don't have junk food in the house. I doubt anyone gets up in their sleep to gorge on raw broccoli.
posted by zadcat at 4:36 PM on April 11, 2010


If it were simple, I'm guessing it would have been solved long ago. Usually a safe assumption to make.
posted by sallybrown at 4:43 PM on April 11, 2010


My mind struggles with the thought of an obese doctor. I'm sure it happens, just haven't met one myself. The plumper ones I knew all lost weight when they graduated from med school. Many doctors I know all went through many years of working very hard - not much sleep, on their feet for 18 hour stretches, sometimes without a single meal, surviving on coffee, sometimes 70 hour weeks. They get home after burning an 18 hour shift buzzing with adrenaline and go "fuck yeah" and fall asleep for a few hours and wake up and do it again. The ones without the mental fortitude to do that burn out in med school. I don't think any more explanation is required than that. Some of them would look healthier with a bit more flesh on their frames at this point...
posted by xdvesper at 5:09 PM on April 11, 2010


I doubt anyone gets up in their sleep to gorge on raw broccoli.

Okay, I haven't eaten raw broccoli in my sleep. But I have eaten raw carrots and hummus, salsa directly out of the jar (judging from the way I felt the next morning, I just drank it straight), peanut butter directly out of the jar, ice cream, fistfuls of leftover chicken and wild rice casserole, cold steamed broccoli, an entire bag of Trader Joe's mandarin orange chicken (thankfully I cooked it), and 3/4s of a small frozen pizza (unfortunately I did not cook that, and lost a filling. Imagine the fun I had explaining that to my dentist.). Among other things. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, removing "junk" food out of the house just means I'll eat whatever's left when the sleepybrain's driving.

One time I experimented with having no food in the house that didn't need to be prepared -- dry ingredients only, like pastas and grains. Guess what? I woke up with seminola caked in my molars from eating uncooked couscous in my sleep. I'd move to having no food in the house at all but I'm afraid I'd wake up with an empty bag of kitty chow in my arms.

It doesn't happen every night, in fact I've gone at least 4 months now without eating in my sleep. But I don't know what triggers it, so I don't know what I'm currently doing to prevent it and if it starts up again tonight I don't really have a solid guess as to why. I'd love to be able to afford a sleep clinic but I currently have no insurance so for now I just have to live with it.

I'm sure it seems hilarious and far-fetched to some people, or like it's made up in an effort to seem quirky. But unfortunately it's not.
posted by palomar at 5:28 PM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]


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