To ask, Do you eat in bed?

[whothehellknows]

... and if so, what do you eat?

For the past several months, I've noticed that as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm suddenly starving. Even if I've eaten a proper dinner, I sometimes wake up ravenous in the night. Then if I don't get up and seek out food, I'll just lie awake for ages. What is up with this?

I've mentioned it to colleagues and a couple have confessed to keeping chocolate bars or crisps by the bed for midnight munchies or coming downstairs for cereal in the wee hours of the morning. Is this something that happens to lots of people?

I have my breakfast bar and coffee in bed after school run in front of the TV. In winter anyway. More likely to do it in the garden in summer. But its sort of a ritual.

I wouldn't sit and eat a steak and chips in bed though.

To answer your question, once I'm in bed for the night, no more eating - I wouldn't put myself to bed ravenous, and if I became hungry I wouldn't get up and eat. But I don't become hungry - my appetite goes into shutdown once sleep happens, if I wake up in the night at 2am for a wee or something I wouldn't feel hunger even if I went to bed slightly hungry, it shuts down. Likewise I don't wake up ravenous in the morning, the appetite tends to develop about an hour or two after I get up (hence having breakfast at a leisurely pace after school run)

Yes, I often wake with the munchies. It's very annoying especially if I am trying to lose weight, because I can be good all day and it goes wrong at night when I have no willpower. It's usually between 1am and 3am. And I have to have something like chocolate or cake, and I often lay awake or keep waking up if I don't. I go through phases, and can go months and not do it, then I have a spate of doing it. I don't take the food back to bed though, I think that would be tooooo annoying for OH

Running - I eat in bed very regularly (probably most days!) and I'm the reverse of fat. I have anorexia. I'd be interested to hear what point you were going to make though as maybe it could apply to both extremes.

Bed is my favourite place to eat. I don't have anything in my diet that could create crumbs though so I don't have to worry about that.

You may want to Google 'Night Eating Syndrome'. If you see it as a problem there's a good book caked 'Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome' by Kelly C Allison et al

A friend of mine used to sleepwalk, and actually eat in her sleep but have no recollection of doing it. One morning she came down and opened the fridge, there were teethmarks on a raw chicken breast. Amazingly she wasn't ill, but she won't eat chicken now

Manic, do you think the eating in bed specifically is linked to your anorexia? I knew someone who did not have anorexia but couldn't eat in public, she ate a full diet but only ever when she was alone. I don't want to offend by saying the wrong thing, but Im iinterested in peoples' food habits since I changed my attitude to food hugely when I lost my appetite as a side effect of medication. I think it's very complex and people aren't always aware of issues with food.

As a teenager I would consume full six-packs of crisps in bed of an evening. I wasn't overweight, or remotely bothered about my weight. I wouldn't eat anything which leaves crumbs or drips now that I'm responsible for the washing!

I haven't eaten in bed since I've had rooms other than my bedroom to myself. But, when I was young, single and living with my parents I once woke up with a part cooked rasher of bacon stuck to my rib cage (can't remember even taking it to bed!) and hundreds of dry roasted peanuts rolling around the bed sheets. I was sharing a bed with my best friend at the time so I'm blaming her. Not the alcohol.

Eating in the bath is for winners though. Mmmmmm, scrambled egg on toast with bubble bath and a kindle. Luxury!

Only chocolate

I used to find the idea horiffic - crumbs in the bed! New boyfriend has converted me to the delights of eating warm croissants with jam in bed, with a pot of coffee to share. He is lovely and gets out of bed to make it for us on Saturday mornings.

I will eat anything in bed (and did once wake up with a. Block of Stilton next to me after a night out). I'm baffled by the 'no food upstairs' rules. I understand for children but do grown adults really impose these rules on themselves (or others)?

I really don't spend all that much time awake in bed these days since moving in with my partner - we don't have a TV in the bedroom or anything, and I can never be bothered to open the blind so it is a bit of a gloomy cave during the day. We go in and sleep. We wake up and get up and leave the bedroom. The only time I can think of really that I've eaten in bed is when I've had sore feet, etc. and decided to spend some time lying in my bed during the day, or after random sex at night after having already brushed my teeth and gone to bed.

I wouldn't choose to eat if it were coming up to tooth-brushing time. That would mean I either had to stay up for at least another 30 mins to then brush my teeth without doing more harm than good, or going to bed without brushing at all, which is also not ideal. I'm slightly less fussy about randomly deciding to have a snack immediately after brushing my teeth, though I avoid it.

Don't read this the wrong way I know there will be those who end up in hysterics, you are warped but I keep a banana by the bed.

I wish I was joking. My blood sugar is unstable and it is easier to grab that in the middle of the night.

Insert your own dirty joke here

Yes, all the time.

Dh & I eat in bed sometimes, the dc's do too if they are not feeling well. Love eating chocolate in bed whilst watching a film.

Of course, I love it. Nothing better than a few cheese thins with butter to sustain one through a 4am readathon.