Feeling hungry at night and in the morning: normal or pathological?

Scientists consider the feeling of hunger to be one of the strongest motivations in life: perhaps only the feeling of love and craving for a loved one can be stronger, in which we even forget about food.

If the goal is achieved and the person has eaten, the feeling of hunger is replaced by a feeling of satiety and satisfaction.

Many problems with our digestive system can be solved independently and successfully, but this largely depends on our food culture and adherence to the rules of proper nutrition and lifestyle.

[ 1 ]

Feeling hungry at night

This is a force majeure for a healthy organism and the "norm" for a person with bad eating habits. Most often, night trips to the refrigerator happen when a person severely limits his or her food intake during the day or even starves. The organism, weakened by lack of food, sooner or later begins to "eat the brain", pushing us to the refrigerator.

Psychologists believe that the feeling of hunger at night is nothing more than an eating disorder, which has its own name: night overeating syndrome (binge eating). Hormonal changes play a significant role in the appearance of the feeling of hunger at night. The essence is in the daily rhythm of hormone levels: a healthy person who does not suffer from eating disorders should maintain a balance between the feeling of satiety and hunger at night, and only under such conditions will a person sleep well. Those who have this balance disturbed cannot sleep peacefully until they fill their stomach to raise the level of saturation in the body.

The situation is worsened by the fact that rarely does anyone try to satisfy their night hunger with a carrot or an apple. Most often, sausage, cookies, and buns are "used". After satisfying hunger in this way, the body receives the required pleasure hormone, and the person falls asleep peacefully.

The next morning, such a night “hike” can result in a feeling of guilt, morning heartburn, and an unwillingness to have a full breakfast, which, in turn, will lead to a circle of problems, including excess weight, digestive diseases, and irritability.

Feeling hungry in the morning

Feeling hungry in the morning is, in principle, a normal phenomenon. A person wakes up, and with him, his digestive system wakes up, which soon reminds of itself with the appearance of a feeling of hunger. Normally, you need to have breakfast no earlier than 30 minutes after waking up: coffee with a croissant in bed is, of course, nice, but the body also needs to wake up before the first meal. It is better to start the morning with a glass of clean water, you can add lemon juice (if you do not suffer from high acidity and stomach ulcers).

But what to do if the morning feeling of hunger is so strong that a person wakes up not because it is morning and time to get up, but because his stomach demands food?

There may be several reasons for this condition. You need to think about what exactly is causing this symptom to appear in you:

• eating sweets at night, late dinner. What to do: review your diet;
• on the contrary, too early dinner, or no dinner at all. The body is capable of accumulating hunger. And it is recommended to have dinner 2-3 hours before going to bed. If the time interval between dinner and sleep is significantly longer, then hunger during this time and during the night's sleep will increase so much that it will manifest itself in full in the morning. What to do: pay attention to the diet;
• increased acidity of gastric juice. Increased acidity can also cause an unbearable feeling of hunger in the morning. Remember if you suffer from heartburn after eating, if you have sour belching. If yes, then you should visit a gastroenterologist to correct the acidity of the stomach. If you do not do this, serious stomach diseases can develop, including ulcers;
• insufficient enzymatic activity of the stomach. Remember, do you have a feeling of heaviness after eating, constipation, rotten belching? Perhaps your stomach does not secrete enough enzymes to process food. If so, then taking such affordable remedies as mezim, festal or enzistal after eating will help you. Of course, it will be better if this is confirmed by a gastroenterologist;
• drinking alcohol at night, smoking. Alcohol and tobacco resins that a person swallows with saliva irritate the stomach, which can react to such irritation by feeling hungry during the night or in the morning. What to do: get rid of bad habits.

Of course, there is another reason for the feeling of hunger in the morning – pregnancy. Therefore, women should not exclude this version: perhaps, it is necessary to visit a gynecologist.

[ 2 ]