Recently, CNN’s “ Anderson Cooper 360�” had a segment on bizarre sleep behavior which some of you may have seen. Here’s more of the same from a WJLA report (via Wrong Side of Happiness):
FRANTIC, UNCONTROLLED EATING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, WHILE YOUR STILL SLEEPING.
IT’S CALLED SLEEP EATING …
Susan Smith: “Then I’d get up and see all the food in the kitchen that was gone. You know that I’d eaten.”
IT’S A BIZARRE SLEEP DISORDER THAT BOTH SUSAN SMITH AND NANCY JORDAN HAVE SUFFERED WITH FOR DECADES.
Nancy Jordan: “This is chicken breast. I had them whole, frozen.”
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS SLEEP EAT. A PERSON CAN HAVE SEVERAL EPISODES IN ONE NIGHT AND NOT REMEMBER A THING.
Susan: “Ice cream, bread cake … you know you don’t get up and eat apples.”
DOCTORS SAY “SLEEP EATING” USUALLY AFFECTS WOMEN AND IT USUALLY DEVELOPS IN THEIR TEENS. AND SOME PEOPLE DON’T JUST EAT FOOD – BUT WILL ACTUALLY EAT THINGS LIKE CIGARETTES OR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.
. . .
Lea Montgomery, nurse: “I’m not talking about making a plate, sitting at a table, having a nice meal in your sleep. I’m talking about frenzied, chaotic, disorganized and primitive eating.”
We tend to view such phenomena through the lens of our own experience. For me this behavior is difficult to imagine. I’m told that when I was a young kid I got up during my sleep a few times and wandered around the house. But that was many years ago, and it’s a far cry from eating frozen food and cigarettes.
The human brain can do some funny things.