What Katie found out next...
I really have to see a doctor, don't I.
"Researchers have discovered that the brain of a sleep-eater behaves differently than an average brain. During normal sleep, the part of the brain which controls movement remains asleep. But in a sleep-eater, that part of the brain "wakes up" -- and this allows for all sorts of physical activity. But the part of the brain which controls reason and judgment remains asleep.
According to Schenck, it is in this zombie-like state that sleep-eaters function.
"They get up and they see their environment," he said. "They know where the kitchen is. But they have no judgment, no inhibition."
It is this lack of judgment which makes for odd menus. Some of Schenck's patients have eaten cat food sandwiches, soap, Elmer's glue, chunks of frozen pizza, and even eggshells. Anna Ryan admitted that she has eaten medicine in her sleep, so now her husband locks the medicine cabinet every night."
Cat food sandwiches?! Glue?! Huh, right, yeah, next you'll be telling me they put frozen chips over the cat food and gnawed on washing powder tablets....
This next bit also caught my attention.
"Doctors are still trying to understand the exact cause of sleep-eating, but they know what often cures it. In most cases, it's medication -- a variety of different meds can help a patient curb their nighttime noshing.
Getting Help
Amy Koechler decided that after 20 years of sleep-eating she needed to get help. Schenck put her on the same kind of drugs that prevent seizures. They don't work for everyone, but they did help Koechler. She still sleep-eats once in a while, but she is no longer a habitual visitor at the all-night diner in her own kitchen cabinets.
Now she can get a good night's rest -- if she keeps taking the medicine.
"It's something that I am not going to be cured from," she said. But the occasional unconscious night-time snack is something she can "learn to live with."
Let's get them to take me seriously this time. Fortunately, for the most part I have been documenting this ongoing horror in my LJ / FB, so I think I should just write it all out - context, dates, exactly what happened vs what I remember (usually nothing) and bring that to the appointment.
I need help. I need it soon, before I really hurt myself or someone else. I could leave the gas on at any time, for fuck's sake. It's not just the food - I've nearly killed myself hauling an enormous TV off the wall whilst unconscious, and more than once been baffled by the new layout of the furniture upon waking.
I have this whole other moving walking talking life that I live when fast asleep, and it's terrifying because I have no control over any part of it. I never remember a thing. Sometimes, after I've binged and hacked and caused chaos in the kitchen overnight, I wake up stretching gloriously feeling like that was the best night's sleep I've had in ages. Then I get up and go to the kitchen and get the shock of my life.
(Very)occasionally there's a vague, half-dreamed memory. Just an image, or a taste. But even that only comes back after I've surveyed the carnage, felt the bile of semi-digested matter rise in my throat and desperately trawled my mind for some kind of recollection.
I've been worried I'm losing my mind. And in a way, I have. My subconscious is its own entity these days, it seems. It makes me angry, amazed, frustrated, embarrassed, confused, concerned, and - bizarrely enough - highly amused - all at once.
What is wrong with my silly little head?! Can't it just behave, now it's growing out of growing (and into ageing) pains?! Why can't I just go to bed and sleep, like everyone else, safe in the knowledge that my body won't get itself up and cause mayhem?
I have to laugh. The alternative is crying, and I have enough uses for that particular outlet as it is.
What the fuck is going on??
Rhetorical question, obviously. Going to bed now. LMAO. I wouldn't dare to guess, given the amount of wine me + Mum got through this evening. Let's just hope I don't actually eat the cat, eh?
"Researchers have discovered that the brain of a sleep-eater behaves differently than an average brain. During normal sleep, the part of the brain which controls movement remains asleep. But in a sleep-eater, that part of the brain "wakes up" -- and this allows for all sorts of physical activity. But the part of the brain which controls reason and judgment remains asleep.
According to Schenck, it is in this zombie-like state that sleep-eaters function.
"They get up and they see their environment," he said. "They know where the kitchen is. But they have no judgment, no inhibition."
It is this lack of judgment which makes for odd menus. Some of Schenck's patients have eaten cat food sandwiches, soap, Elmer's glue, chunks of frozen pizza, and even eggshells. Anna Ryan admitted that she has eaten medicine in her sleep, so now her husband locks the medicine cabinet every night."
Cat food sandwiches?! Glue?! Huh, right, yeah, next you'll be telling me they put frozen chips over the cat food and gnawed on washing powder tablets....
This next bit also caught my attention.
"Doctors are still trying to understand the exact cause of sleep-eating, but they know what often cures it. In most cases, it's medication -- a variety of different meds can help a patient curb their nighttime noshing.
Getting Help
Amy Koechler decided that after 20 years of sleep-eating she needed to get help. Schenck put her on the same kind of drugs that prevent seizures. They don't work for everyone, but they did help Koechler. She still sleep-eats once in a while, but she is no longer a habitual visitor at the all-night diner in her own kitchen cabinets.
Now she can get a good night's rest -- if she keeps taking the medicine.
"It's something that I am not going to be cured from," she said. But the occasional unconscious night-time snack is something she can "learn to live with."
Let's get them to take me seriously this time. Fortunately, for the most part I have been documenting this ongoing horror in my LJ / FB, so I think I should just write it all out - context, dates, exactly what happened vs what I remember (usually nothing) and bring that to the appointment.
I need help. I need it soon, before I really hurt myself or someone else. I could leave the gas on at any time, for fuck's sake. It's not just the food - I've nearly killed myself hauling an enormous TV off the wall whilst unconscious, and more than once been baffled by the new layout of the furniture upon waking.
I have this whole other moving walking talking life that I live when fast asleep, and it's terrifying because I have no control over any part of it. I never remember a thing. Sometimes, after I've binged and hacked and caused chaos in the kitchen overnight, I wake up stretching gloriously feeling like that was the best night's sleep I've had in ages. Then I get up and go to the kitchen and get the shock of my life.
(Very)occasionally there's a vague, half-dreamed memory. Just an image, or a taste. But even that only comes back after I've surveyed the carnage, felt the bile of semi-digested matter rise in my throat and desperately trawled my mind for some kind of recollection.
I've been worried I'm losing my mind. And in a way, I have. My subconscious is its own entity these days, it seems. It makes me angry, amazed, frustrated, embarrassed, confused, concerned, and - bizarrely enough - highly amused - all at once.
What is wrong with my silly little head?! Can't it just behave, now it's growing out of growing (and into ageing) pains?! Why can't I just go to bed and sleep, like everyone else, safe in the knowledge that my body won't get itself up and cause mayhem?
I have to laugh. The alternative is crying, and I have enough uses for that particular outlet as it is.
What the fuck is going on??
Rhetorical question, obviously. Going to bed now. LMAO. I wouldn't dare to guess, given the amount of wine me + Mum got through this evening. Let's just hope I don't actually eat the cat, eh?