Do Americans really wake up and eat in the middle of the night?

r/

I’ve always seen this in American movies.

I always found it odd how they meet in the kitchen in the middle of the night to get a snack. Never heard of or seen anyone doing it in my country

Comments

  1. Salt_Level1420 Avatar

    I’ve never done it unless pregnant. And I don’t know of anyone else that has either. I’ve also thought it was just a movie thing.

  2. azuth89 Avatar

    Mostly its a contrivance for people to be up and about in the middle of the night.

  3. BreakingUp47 Avatar

    Mmmmm….cheese. It calls to me. Cheese is my go-to if I wake up and feel hungry.

  4. Pilea_Paloola Avatar

    I’ve never done it. Now, I do snack when I’m staying up too late at 2am, but I’ve never gotten out of bed to get anything other than water.

  5. EverGreatestxX Avatar

    For the most part, no.

  6. WorldTallestEngineer Avatar

    I’m doing exactly that right now… Also on reddit

  7. Nonya_Bisniss Avatar

    Never done it. We are overweight though so maybe it’s that.

  8. eQualiizer_ Avatar

    I use to eat in the middle of sleep for many years. I’m not sure if it was a minor disorder or anything, per se, but I would be in sort of a haze hunting food. Not sure what caused it or really when I stopped, but it went on for years.

    Not really exactly what you’re asking, but somewhat related I guess.

    Also, I think the whole meet up thing is definitely just cinematic.

  9. Fun-Yellow-6576 Avatar

    It’s a movie troupe. Same as always seeing someone carrying a paper bag of groceries with a load of French bread sticking out of it.

  10. donotpassgo2514 Avatar

    I have never done it or thought about doing it but have gotten water before. If I did eat something, I’d feel compelled to brush my teeth again. Also not sure how it would be to try and go back to sleep with a snack sloshing around.

  11. Ajibooks Avatar

    I’ve always had acid reflux and I’m doing pretty well with it right now. But in the past, sometimes I’d get up and have bread or milk to try to settle my stomach, if I was in a lot of pain and my medication wasn’t working. I’ve never been actually hungry in the middle of the night, though.

  12. boulevardofdef Avatar

    Americans also don’t hang up the phone without saying goodbye or order just “beer” at a bar.

  13. Melificent40 Avatar

    Yep. Pretty much every effort at serious calorie cutting eventually turns into waking up at 1 or 2 AM with stomach audibly growling and/or in pain.

  14. Sea-Apple8054 Avatar

    I am so disappointed that my fellow humans on here all seem to think that snacking in the middle of the night is unheard of.
    “I have never done it and neither has anyone I know,” and “I tried it once, but I just got water”. Major bummers.

  15. RoastAdroit Avatar

    I dont think its meant to be a “wake up” thing. A very big house sometimes has multiple worlds going on in it. People “go to bed” but the adults are just relaxing in their bedroom, the kids are in the room furthest away from the parents, and you find yourself a guest, of which there are multiple in a house like this, awkwardly going to the kitchen because the dinner was some weird fancy shit you didnt really like and you are hungry now, odds are you bump into someone stopping in at the kitchen too. Ive 100% been in this situation a bunch of times.

  16. Nihilistic_River4 Avatar

    I never used to, but I try it now, and it’s awesome!

  17. OptatusCleary Avatar

    My guess is that “waking up hungry and having something to eat because you’re an adult and you can do what you want” is sometimes done in any country that has access to an abundant food supply.

    In movies, it’s definitely a storytelling device. It allows two characters in the same house to be up for a plausible reason without other characters that would usually be with them. So it allows two characters to interact one-on-one who it might otherwise be hard to extricate from their other connections. 

  18. Benny_Kravitz101 Avatar

    sometimes I wake up at like 2am with a sugar low and make a peanut butter sandwhich then go back to bed

  19. canela-concafe Avatar

    For some of us is very very rare but for others like my brothers it happens very often! There’s been many times they’ve woken me up in the middle of the night to eat a whole meal or a snack 🥴

  20. StadiaTrickNEm Avatar

    I do this every day. Im canadian

  21. ArtemisElizabeth1533 Avatar

    I literally have binge eating disorder and I don’t even do it. 

  22. iceunelle Avatar

    No, what? Please don’t take movies or TV shows as indicative of real life. It’s probably just used as a plot device in movies.

  23. zeugma888 Avatar

    Sometimes, usually when I’m not well, I will get up in the night to make a hot drink. I’ve never run into a family member or roommate when I did it though.

  24. alkigirl Avatar

    I have woken up in the wee hours and eaten many times.
    For a solid year, I woke up around 3 and had a PB&J with a glass of milk.

  25. Own-Struggle6041 Avatar

    Yes, we do meet in the kitchen in the middle of the night to snack or have early breakfast depending on your household hours. We work over nights so it’s not uncommon.

  26. Competitive-Ebb3816 Avatar

    Sometimes, my meal times get out of whack, so I’m too hungry to sleep. A bowl of cereal usually does the trick.

  27. lestairwellwit Avatar

    It’s not really just a snack. It’s more like we just need to randomly consume something.

  28. VoxDolorum Avatar

    Well as an American my reaction to reading the title of your post was utter confusion. So definitely not a thing that I’ve ever heard of. I’m not even sure I’ve really seen that in movies either that I can think of. 

    But many things you see in movies are not how people actually live. Wearing shoes indoors / on furniture is extremely uncommon where I live. People say goodbye when hanging up the phone. The vast majority of people in America don’t eat pancakes for breakfast everyday. And mothers also aren’t cooking enough food for 6 people everyday only for their teenagers to grab a single slice of toast and run out the door. 

  29. wiskinator Avatar

    Yeah, and I did it when I lived in Europe too

  30. indigopluto420 Avatar

    I’m awake at 12:57AM and scrolling Reddit right now because I woke up and was hungry and had a massive bowl of cereal.

  31. BookLuvr7 Avatar

    Some do, but usually just to make themselves sleepy. It’s much more rare than TV portrays..It’s not like we all get up in the night for a midnight nosh.

  32. GreyBeardEng Avatar

    I imagine some do, but I don’t, and I don’t know anybody who does.

  33. Dangerous_Ad_7042 Avatar

    It’s less often that we wake up from sleeping to get a snack and more like we are laying there being kept up by the munchies so we finally give in and go make a snack, or we’re laying in bed watching tv and decide to have a snack.

  34. Graphite57 Avatar

    If not, why put a light in the fridge?

  35. neeto Avatar

    My boyfriend does but it’s a documented side effect of his medication lol

  36. QualifiedApathetic Avatar

    If I’m hungry to the point where it will stop me from getting back to sleep, I will eat something, yes. Otherwise, no.

  37. rsvihla Avatar

    Which country do you live in?

  38. CrayCrayCat1277 Avatar

    I did just last night, made a pbj sandwich at like 1am, ate and went back to sleep

  39. ChaiCreamLatte Avatar

    I love eating in the middle of the night. I’m actually doing it right now! Literally just woke up to get a snack lol

  40. Spiceybrown Avatar

    Nope. I’m also pregnant and I definitely woke up at 5am to pee and was also hungry, but even still I didn’t eat.

  41. found_the_american Avatar

    I’d love to but I’m usually too tired.

  42. SellaraAB Avatar

    As someone who lives with a type 1 diabetic, this is a nightly occurrence.

  43. risksxh1 Avatar

    I’ll do it if I wake up in the middle of the night and I’ve been awake long enough to develop an appetite. That only really happens if I’ve been awake for a couple hours

  44. WheresFlatJelly Avatar

    I work nights. I get up at 11am, eat a meal, then go back to bed until 3pm

  45. profsecretkeeper Avatar

    Sleep eating is a thing too.