Nighttime eating syndrome (NES)

Fish are also "complete protein sources" that have the nine amino acids (the part of the protein I meant earlier) that we can't make on our own. Chicken, eggs, and a few plants also have these molecular groups. Maybe the steak is higher in overall protein and therefore more filling for longer?

(For a source to read up on The Complete Protein Foods List And Facts | Piedmont Healthcare )

Oh, inaluna,you remember that I was anemic. Thank you.

The latest ferritin is 48. The endocrinologist thinks it is better, but still not great. So maybe it is that.

Thank you for that refresher link which reminded me that buckwheat, which I eat fairly often, is a complete plant protein. I knew that back then but forgot.

The link also explains that animal sources are richer in protein.

I think just how much protein and iron are in a steak is what makes it so filling.

I am not donating blood anymore. Just can't, given how slowly iron reserves are being rebuilt. My last donation was in early September and just platelets which extracts a smaller number of RBC. Still, it took more than 6 months to for the ferritin number to double since that donation. So, as my manicurist said on Thursday when she asked me and heard my story, one has to save oneself before saving others.

I appreciate your appreciating me! I think i used to creep people (like my last therapist) out with my remembering stuff. OTOH, my phone will tell me i watched a show and im like hmm i must have fallen asleep during it! Some movies im like, wow i remember the exact opposite of what seem like the important scenes now, or vice versa! Just strange.

Same here.

Also, when I was a teen, my aunt, who just turned 85, used to say that my memory was like a dumpster. It holds all sorts of random stuff everyone else would have long discarded. But I disagree. It often proved useful.

Thank you!

So eggs for dinner don't do the trick.

They are a good dinner, like breakfast for dinner, but they don't do the trick. I have tried several times frying three eggs in clarified butter and it gives satiety that then lasts only through about 3 am. Oh well

The sleep psychologist whom I saw today suggested setting an alarm to eat in the middle of the night. So that it becomes a predictable routine and gives me a sense of control. I have set an alarm for two thirty in the morning. We will see how it goes.

Getting better at frying in my cast iron skillet. Today, fried lamb loin chops in olive oil, removed them from the pan, prepare a sauce with butter, garlic, rosemary, and parsley (the recipe also called for fresh thyme which I did not have on hand), returned the chops into the pan to coat them in the sauce, had three small chops and saved two for later. They were delicious and I have already cleaned the stove from oil splatters and washed and dried the cast iron skillet. Once you get the hang of it, the whole thing does not take that long. I have learned that I need to plan - the meat has to be at room temp for a while prior to being fried or else, cold, it won't fry evenly. So it is not something that can be prepared on a moment's notice. But with planning, it is not too time-consuming. I had it with half a potato "baked" in my smart microwave, half an orange, and pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe's. Let us see how long I stay full after such a big meal.

I am pretty happy with the results of "baking" potatoes in the microwave. I think even sweet potatoes.

I dont understand baking eggs in a regular oven. That seems like the proverbial using an elephant gun to kill a fly. "Egg bites" are perhaps delicious and convenient enough to warrant an exception. Maybe a strata for holidays. But individual eggs? Perhaps if cooking for a large crowd. I guess my perspective is skewed to the singleton!

Also, i dont understand rosemary as a food herb. It reminds me of turpentine. I love thyme though.

I microwave-bake sweet potatoes, too. I use the same setting of baked potato. They come out just fine.

Never understood using an over for baking eggs, either. And I actually thought that eggs bites at Starbucks are made in a sous vide.

My lamb chops lasted me 4 hours a bit. Compared to that one huge steak after which I had a break from eating for more than 7 hours, it is simply size matters. The huge steaks wighed 12 oz and yesterday I ate a bit under 9 oz of lamb chops. It makes sense that I would be hungry earlier.

During the day today, between naps and vertigo that kept me in bed, I had a period of not eating that lasted 7 hours. So it is basically the reverse schedule: during the night I cannot go more than a few hours without food and during the day, I can.

This makes it a circadian rhythms disorder and not an eating disorder, I think.

I now have grounds to suspect that both Zyprexa and Seroquel are causing nighttime eating specifically in me, and that I was unjustifiably stubborn when I rejected the suggestions that nighttime eating may be caused by Seroquel.

At least three people have suggested it over the last couple of years:

- my medical weight loss physician assistant, the one who is prescribing Mounjaro that works well and would have been working even better if not for nighttime eating

- the registered dietitian who works in tandem with the medical weight loss physician assistant

- the endocrinologist (at a different clinic)

Each time they would suggest that Seroquel was to blame, I would counter with "But I am on a small dose!"

Today, after having gone without eating for two nights, albeit not in a row, when I took only Thorazine for sleep and no Seroquel, I had an appointment with the sleep psychologist and shared that I might have stubbornly rejected reasonable suggestions that my nighttime hunger was caused by Seroquel.

And yet I do take small doses of it... And then she reminded me that my reactions to medications are highly atypical and she could see how in me personally Seroquel might be to blame.

Unfortunately, Thorazine seems to be causing dystonia bad enough that I cannot drive. My plan is to temporarily go back to Seroquel to wash out Thorazine and to test whether indeed I will start waking up hungry in the middle of the night again even if I eat a lot at dinnertime and before bedtime, and then discuss with my psychiatrist a trial of just 10 mg of Thorazine, similar to what I was taking more than 2 years ago and back then all I needed to eat at night was some moist fruit to relieve a dry mouth. I was not hungry. And as I have a better sleep apnea treatment set-up now, I probably will not have dry mouth in the middle of the night.

It is such a bind - first generation agents cause extra pyramidal side effects while second generation agents that are sedative enough cause hunger. And both extra pyramidal side effects and hunger greatly disrupt my life. Where is a way out?!

Dystonia went away last night. I was not able eat much and I could not resist experimenting with what would happen if I took Thorazine and not Seroquel.

I took 10 mg Thorazine. Slept for 3 hours. Woke up, tried to fall asleep without eating but could not. Gave up. Had a latte and started eating my regular portion of steelcut oats with applesauce. I quickly became full and stopped eating. I ate less than half of my usual portion. There was a remarkable difference in how little food nighttime eating required without Seroquel. And yesterday I ate much less than typical for me, so it is reasonable to expect that after a day ofeating as usual I would need even less for a nighttime snack if I do not take Seroquel.

So far it is a result in favor of the hypothesis that Seroquel causes my NES.

I then took half a pill and slept more. Will not take more Thorazine today Will monitor what kind of extra pyramidal side effects taking just 15 mg of Thorazine causes. Hopefully, today will be better than yesterday.

Im starting to feel like a lab rat myself! Control this variable, measure that outcome! But the scale did seem a little lower yesterday. I have a hard time seeing the readings in the lower right corner of the dial! with my right cataract eye.

Are you going to get a surgery for the cataract? My old optometrist told me when I turned 50 that I was just starting to develop a cataract and that I would need surgery when I turned 70. Then he retired and the young one who took over the practice has not talked to me about cataracts yet.

I keep thinking its getting better because it isnt a "real" cataract, it was a reaction to retinal surgery. Its not in the medical journals yet but it / I will be!

I am sure we over here, collectively, can contribute a lot of interesting conditions to future articles in medical journals

So I am completely cured of NES and excessive daytime hunger.

I enjoy it.

I do not enjoy having been awake for over 26 hours.

Thorazine is not an option as a maintenance sleep med for several reasons.

On my own, I cannot achieve sleep. Have not been able to since at least 2012.

Fun.

That is good news! I remember how happy i was when i started taking Ambien in the early 2000's. I had been a worrier, unable to fall asleep for literally hours, all my life. Yes, even as a small child, thanks to my older brother, sleeping in the same room, telling me of monsters in the closet. When i was a toddler, i wouldnt fall asleep until my mother came home from work, after 2 am.

After 2AM, as a child! How horrible!

I was too smart for my own good but also easily fooled. But not about stuff i KNEW.

After 43 hours without sleeping, with pressurized racing thoughts, clear promise of escalation, very uncomfortable sensation in the heart area, and also in the head, and hot flushed face, I have in, took 10 mg Zyprexa and slept.

Next morning I woke up at 11. Luckily was able to make my 11:30 am meeting, the first one today. But during the meeting I could hardly focus on what the other person said, as my thoughts were elsewhere. Attended one more meeting

Then paced the floors in the apartment until my feet became sore. I then went to bed.

Took a nap for 1.5 hrs of net sleep. That lessened racing thoughts but didn't stop the headache.

So far no
abnormal hunger, a large bowl or vegetarian borscht with sour cream quickly satisfied hunger.

I am afraid that hunger is yet to come back and with a vengeance.

I will continue on Zyprexa. It is stronger as an anti-manic agent than Seroquel, and now that I know that Seroquel was the culprit of my NES, there are no more reasons to favor it over Zyprexa. If I have to be painfully hungry, at least I would suffer for the sake of what for me has proven the best anti-manic agent on the market.

It is tough to be in such a bind. A Catch-22.