Yes, I had already read Doreen's thread.

First of all thank you all of you for your concerns and a special thank you to the people who said they had the same problem - I am not alone!

I don't think it is NES as I am fully awake and realise what I am doing. I even enjoy it! Pate on cheese takes much better at 3 am than it does during the day!

I do snore but I don't think this is the probelm as I tend to wake up at about 2.5 hour intervals so iot actually fits in quite well with my sleep cycles! Generally I get enough sleep in total so this is not a big problem. Obviously it adds to the total amount of food I eat in 24 hours however.

Last night was a bad one - I polished off 2 cooked burgers (Russian cutletti), a slice of pork and an Atkins Advantage bar - I fancied something sweet!

I don't think I have blood sugar issues. I've been low carbing for a long time and if anything, this should keep them stable.

Thanks again for all your advice. I'll post here again if I make any progress.

'tend to wake up at about 2.5 hour intervals'

Fletcher -- my husband has sleep apnea - and this is something I've heard HIM say -- he would wake up every couple of hours - sometimes just a bit - and sometimes wide awake. He felt fine most of the time, but sometimes wore out b/c he wasn't getting REM sleep. He was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and currently uses a CPAP machine.

If you are only sleeping 2.5 hours at a time, you might seriously consider taking a sleep test to rule out sleep apnea. Your body makes you wake up because you aren't getting oxygen into it -- it's a survival thing.

Good luck!

Talk to your doctor, RC. You might be surprised that they may understand this issue and know how to treat it.

Robert, do I remember correctly that you moved from the UK back to Belarus fairly recently (or is it just for a few weeks)? Anyway, do you think your night-time eating has increased before/during/after the move? What I'm getting at here is changes in stress levels.

Also with the NES thing, there seem to be two types. One is eating a lot in the evening and waking up during the night to eat, with full knowledge of what one is doing. The other (and much rarer) condition is waking up in the morning to find the evidence of unconscious/forgotten night-time eating.

This site gives a good description of the first type, the one that still seems to give me trouble (in terms of desperately wanting snacks after dinner even though I've managed to correct the middle of the night eating).

Em