feeding the 3am hunger

[DoloresODonovan]

wide awake hungry - aware Ive no right to be as we had a fruity chicken curry and rice then fruit at 7.00pm
I have opened the fridge door, looking in willing a sherry trifle to appear,
logically knowing it won’t yet realising there is nothing to eat.
I dont want fruit as I dont want all that sucrose, salad is too indigestible, there is
no bread, biscuits, cake, cold sausages, bagels or cold meat left. I’m tempted to make porridge, although we have no honey or figs, might settle for Ovaltine,
’the food drink of the night’ as it was known.

What does any one else eat or drink at this time, do you especially keep food
for night time when you are hungry, beyond White’s lemonade of course.

I saw a cute FB short video of a Labrador eating food and the captions said

i never knew there was a name for not being able to sleep because you’re hungry-

Insom-nom-nom-nom-nia

😆

I always enjoyed toast or cereal type food then- but it can be a sloppy slope to weight gain as it adds into your days calories but doesn’t seem to impact on the days hunger. So if regularly happening, be careful if weight is an issue.

How our ancestors used to sleep can help the sleep-deprived today | CNN

Perhaps you're a medieval monk, OP?
"Two sleeps", with food, chats, sex (maybe not for the monks), etc., in between, was the norm in the past, apparently....

I would also assume that you aren’t eating enough in the day time. The only times I’ve woken up hungry were a) when I was breastfeeding a young baby or b) when Ive been restricting calorie intake to try and lose weight.

Snacks I would eat in the night: bananas, milk, oatcakes. They are good sleepy foods.

Surely you're brushing them when you get up though? 7am/8am. Not brushing your teeth for 3 hours after eating crackers couldn't have caused that much diamanté?

An apple, cut into eighths, and a chunk of cheese cut into 8 little cubes. 🙂

Damage not diamanté!

I think this bit was a joke. A reference to the rwhites lemonade advert.

I wonder if scientists say this or not… has a ring of truth

I keep a jar of almonds by the bed in case I get the 3am hunger. Mine is linked to blood sugar crashes I think, I try and eat something small with protein just before I go to bed to prevent it.

Goodness that’s a lot to eat in the middle of the night. Can I ask if you’ have a weight problem, as if not then you don’t eat enough during the day, if you do, then this sort of habit would be the cause.

Is this a thing??? If I woke up at 3am hungry, I'd roll over and go back to sleep. Nothing gets me out of bed in the middle of the night. I'm picturing loads of women snooping round the kitchen, Nigellla style, looking for food.

I often go to sleep hungry if we've had fish for tea or something healthy but not filling. Surely you just wait it out until breakfast (if you eat it) or midday (for me, as I don't)

Don’t worry, I resisted the lure of the chocolate pudding 🤷‍♀️

Not normal for myself, I have never woken up at that time, and gone to look for food. Eat enough in the daytime!

All these people who say you can't/shouldn't be hungry at 3 am! They are like those people who tell you that everyone like chilli or nobody can be cold if their heating is set at 18 degrees.

I frequently wake up at 3 am hungry, and then I can't get back to sleep. I find that if I actually get up to get something I wake myself up more, so I try and keep a snack next to the bed for midnight (OK 3am) munchies. Most times I can manage without it but sometimes not. I always have a bottle of water, so it's not thirst, and I try to ensure that whatever snack I have isn't so delicious that I end up eating it anyway just because I like it. For me, it's usually a few boring biscuits or plain crackers, or rice cakes. Sometimes it's a banana. I may want a bacon sandwich - but getting up will wake me up and, quite frankly, I could probably eat a bacon sandwich at any time of day or night whether I'm hungry or not!

If you’re needing to get up in the early hours to genuinely deal with hunger then you’re not eating enough in the day.

I can’t get my head round people eating at 3am! And certainly not keeping snacks by the bed! Just go back to sleep, have some water or if you’re so hungry that you can’t get back to sleep, have a glass of milk.

Me neither, I see no one is responding to if they have a weight problem, or if they don’t and it’s they don’t eat enough during the day. Guaranteed there is a mix of both here.

I can’t imagine taking food to bed so I could wake up and eat it in the night.

This is not remotely normal/healthy and shouldn’t be played as such.

I’ve heard it all now. It’s disordered not to have bread in the house 🙄

I’m hungry often. Just not in the night. I do relate to that feeling of looking in the fridge in the hope that you’re preferred food will materialise, even though you know it’s not there!

If I'm hungry enough to get out of bed, I usually have cheddar cheese and pickles. It's my go-to 3 or even 5am snack.

Babybel lights are good for snacking

a cultural reference - if you have read MT you are old enough to remember
the R Whites lemonade adverts ( with Elvis Costello’s dad lol)

for yfi we don’t have lemonade or any other sugary drinks in the house, rest easy

Honestly getting up to eat at 3am so often that you keep food next to your bed is not normal.

It's very very rare for me, usually happens if I've done loads of exercise and not eaten enough or can't sleep
Usually just have a small bowl of porridge with some banana

It absolutely can be normal. The key thing to remember is that everyone is different. I know someone who doesn’t eat all day then has a huge meal at dinner time. Personally I have to eat quite regularly or i start to feel funny! I know this mumsnet where eating is demonised in general, but the faux-shock at the idea of people being hungry in the night is really quite ridiculous.

Genuinely surprised by the responses on this thread, I didn’t know getting up in the night to eat was a thing! I sometimes wake feeling hungry (usually when I’ve had too many carbs with dinner) but it wouldn’t actually occur to me to get up and eat. I wouldn’t want to actually wake myself up more than necessary, I think if I got up at ate at 3am my body would think it was up for the day.