Waking through the night hungry

[Mrs Dragonfly]

How can I stop waking through the night feeling hungry and sick? I eat as much as I can before bed and keep snacks on my nightstand but with how hungry I am by 3-5am I have to get up and snack or I feel super sick. I just want to sleep until my toddler wakes, not be up eating!!

 

[DobbyForever]

I don't have a solution. What are you meals like during the day? I wouldn't suggest eating right before bed, especially not heavily. Your body is resting so your digestive system slows down, which means all that good you eat right before bed takes longer to digest and is more likely to be stored as fat. I don't wake up hungry. I wake up to pee and while I am up I might get the urge to eat. I honestly ignore it. I wake up like clockwork and I'm not about to let my body think 3:15am is an acceptable snack time. I know my gyn says to snack if I am hungry but I'm drawing the line there. But my hunger has never been like pains or rumbles or kept me up.

I would also look at what you eat during the day. It could be whatever you are eating at dinner isn't what your body needs. I have a higher metabolism in the morning because I am a teacher/always been a morning person. I'm fairly inactive at night. So I actually eat dinner at 6:30 (a protein and a fresh vegetable source) and won't eat again until about 7am. I eat 5-6x a day every 3 hours starting within an hour of waking up. I'll have a snack if I get hungry, but I don't get hungry. Because everything I eat is incredibly healthy. Not all calories are created equal so my 10am kashi bar with chia seeds keeps me much more full than the saltines and ginger ale i was eating to stave off nausea with my other pregnancies or that greasy cheeseburger my bean craves lol

So I would start by looking at what you eat and when you eat it and how much water you are drinking through the day (helps with nutrient absorption).

Dunno if that helps at all. Every body is different/every pregnancy is different so what works for me may not work for you. Hope you find a solution soon

 

[xdxxtx]

Lower your carb intake at night and choose more protein. Carbs raise your blood sugar, which causes it to drop after a while, causing hunger, maybe even headaches and nausea.

 

[SonnyH]

Can you stomach eggs? I was struggling with afternoon hunger at work and have started eating egg sandwiches for lunch (2 large eggs). It's def helped my hunger levels a bit!

I'm 16 weeks and really struggling with hunger in general at the mo. I eat a reasonable sized dinner and 30 minutes later you'd think I'd eaten nothing all day! It's so rubbish! I also wake up starving in the night Not a huge amount seems to make it better to be honest, sometimes drinking water helps, sometimes Zantac helps (excessive acid mimics hunger), sometimes I just have to snack.. I really do feel your pain! I hope it gets better soon!

 

[Mrs Dragonfly]

It's difficult to eat as healthy as I usually do with the nausea. Before bed I had some cheese and apples. I frequently eat through the day and have been staying away from sweets. There's a lot of startchy bread and potatoes going on right now, they're all I stomach when nothing else sounds good. I loaded up on beans at the grocery store and plan to get those into my day. At night I usually have crackers and a pear on the nightstand.

 

[DobbyForever]

. It's no wonder you're hungry at night if you're living off of starchy carbs, beans, and cheese. If you really can't stomach the healthy foods you need, would you be willing to talk to your gyn about remedies? My nausea has only kicked in for breakfast, but honestly I just force the food down and do everything I can to not throw up after (laying down, turning off extra stimulus, drinking cold water, deep breathing). But I rarely throw up from eating (usually a smell or random) so I just give myself a pep talk, say it's for the baby, and eat it.

 

[jessmke]

OP, this is survival mode time. Eat whatever you can manage to keep down, and eat whatever time of the day/night you are hungry. I have never had much cravings when pregnant, but I have massive food aversions and like you have lived off of starchy carbs even though I hardly ever eat them when not pregnant. When I was pregnant with my first I don't think I ate a vegetable in about 4 months, I would vomit at the sight of them in the fridge, and that was while taking anti-nausea medication. It is not always possible to force yourself to eat healthy if your sickness and aversions are very strong. Take your prenatal vitamins, choose healthy options whenever your body allows, and at other times just eat whatever doesn't make you want to die. Your baby will be fine and will take the vitamins and nutrients it needs. Once the sickness subsides you can focus on healthier options and exercising to combat the extra eating you may have done in the first tri.

Beans are actually an excellent option if you are suffering from nausea. I'll try to find the journal article but research has shown that eating beans or other legumes whenever you feel nauseous helps to reduce sickness. Can't remember off the top of my head but has something to do with the bile released by your gall bladder when you eat beans.

At night I pack myself a little snack box with some cut up apples and rice cakes with unsweetened almond butter. I am up 3-5 times at night with my 1 year old so when I get back into bed I'll have a few bites of something to keep the nausea at bay.