A mother in Wisconsin nearly choked after eating an entire box of chocolate muffins while sleepwalking.
Christian Owens, 41, began sleepwalking as a side effect of the postpartum anxiety medication he started taking after the birth of his then 15-month-old daughter.
However, shortly after starting the recipe, she found herself eating in her sleep and in 2018, while trapped in a dream state, Ms Owens unwittingly devoured an entire box of Swiss rolls before returning to bed.
But, as she had not chewed them properly, a piece of dough “suffocated” her. Ms Owens was just minutes away from death when her grandmother, Elinda Owens, 84, woke up four hours later to find her in bed with purple lips.
He quickly began performing CPR to save his granddaughter’s life.
Ms. Owens is one of millions of Americans who suffer from a sleep-related eating disorder (SRED), which involves preparing or eating food while sleeping without remembering it.
Doctors have called it a “horrendous” condition that “has the worst impact on people’s lives” as it leads to weight gain and severe mental distress.
Christian Owens, 41, unwittingly ate an entire box of chocolate Swiss rolls while he was sleeping, nearly causing him to choke to death.
Ms. Owens’ grandmother, Elinda (left, with Ms. Owens) saved her life by performing CPR for six minutes. Ms. Owens had only minutes to live.
Sleep eating is a parasomnia, abnormal or unusual behavior during sleep, such as walking, talking, experiencing night terrors, and engaging in sexual activity while asleep.
Ms. Owens believes her SRED is a side effect of postpartum anxiety medication. According to the Cleveland Clinic, medications that put patients into a state of sleep or hypnosis, such as insomnia medications, can trigger SRED and other parasomnias.
Several forms of anti-anxiety medications have also been shown to increase drowsiness and put patients into a sleep-like state.
“The medication made me sleepy and I would wake up in the middle of the night and not realize I was awake,” Owens said.
Although it was not the first time she had been found eating while asleep, because she did not chew her food properly this time, the rolls traveled to her lungs instead of her stomach, a process called aspiration.
This causes difficulty breathing, which could be fatal if not detected in time.
“It was like I had gone down the wrong chute. I basically suffocated and that caused my heart to stop,” Owens said.
When Mrs. Owens’ grandmother found her, her lips had turned blue.
Elinda, a retired nurse, performed CPR for six minutes, breaking three of her granddaughter’s ribs in the process.
The mother of five only remembers waking up in the ICU, where she spent several days connected to a ventilator that breathed for her.
“I had a little brain damage to my short-term memory, so it was difficult for me to remember things and memorize them, but other than that, I made a full recovery,” he said.
Part of a sweet bun had traveled to Ms Owens’ lungs instead of her stomach, causing her to have trouble breathing.
Ms. Owens woke up in the hospital on a respirator, completely unaware of what had happened.
The Cleveland Clinic estimates that between one and five percent of American adults suffer from some form of parasomnia. That’s a range of approximately 2.5 to 13 million people.
There is no exact estimate of how many people eat while they sleep.
Dr. Carlos Schenck, a professor and senior psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota’s Hennepin County Medical Center, He told CNN That of all the parasomnias, ‘sleep-related eating disorder has the worst impact on people’s lives.’
“These people stop eating almost every night, gain weight and feel sick in the morning. This affects their whole life and is just horrible.”
She noted that when a person eats while sleeping, their brain craves foods that satisfy the body’s need for gratification, which includes ultra-processed foods such as sweets, cakes and chips.
“You don’t have any control, you don’t have any restrictions,” she said. “People can eat foods they’re allergic to and then have an allergic reaction. It’s rare, but it does happen.”
‘And because they choose foods like peanut butter, chocolate, leftover banana cream pie or pasta (overly processed, fattening comfort foods) they may develop or aggravate their diabetes or hypertension.’
The condition is usually treated by preventing access to food during the night, for example by locking it, managing stress and practising good “sleep hygiene”. This means avoiding caffeine, screens and alcohol before bed to promote restful sleep.
Six years later, Ms Owens praises her “superhuman” grandmother, now 90, for saving her life.
“It was all my grandmother’s fault,” she said. “When they told me what happened, it was a big shock.
“I felt incredibly grateful. My grandparents were the ones who raised me and my grandmother was always my hero, but this took it to another level.”