I've been taking this medication for the past 3ish years, started at 50mg and now I take 100mg, I too, feel like I am apart of the walking dead the next day, but as soon as I take the medication at night time, I feel like there is a monster inside of me that needs to be fed. I get STARVING, even if I eat dinner a couple of hours beforehand. I tried asking my doctor about it, he told me that I just need to eat broccoli or some greens before bed... Just curious if anyone else has the same issue
Trazodone - Does this medication make anyone extremely hungry?
Question posted by bekahdavies on 25 Oct 2015
Last updated on 23 September 2024
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43 Answers Page 3
puglover8675
17 July 2020
I am EXCRUCIATINGLY hungry on it. Even during the day. I can eat something filling then within 20 minutes i am STARVING.
CantStopWontStop
16 July 2020
YOU GUYS!!! Ok, wow, just wow. It took me months to even think to look up whether it might be the trazodone causing THE SUGAR MONSTER to take over my mind & body every night. Full-on possessed. It has been such a serious problem and nothing (and I mean NOTHING) has been able to stop me- I thought I truly had lost all self-control and I was going to need hypnosis or something extreme to straighten me out. I've tried preparing for said sugar monster by eating healthy foods right before bed, obviously water... I even have a new behavioral therapist I've been working with on it. Last night I kept a bowl of cherry tomatoes by my bed so I could eat them when it hit, but guess what I did instead? I went into the kitchen and proceeded to eat 4 ice cream sandwiches and an entire box of these fig newton cookie things. And last night was an average night.
Most nights I'm shoveling junk food in my face so fast I can barely swallow, and then I'm wandering back into the kitchen for more and can't even walk straight because (obviously) I should be asleep. One night I ate an entire pack of Oreos, among other sugary JUNK, and could barely breathe in the morning I was so full. The descriptions in this thread are so spot on... a snack seeking missile (me), a wild animal (me), nocturnal ravenous hunger (yup).
For any haters who think I'm being dramatic- it's worth noting that I'm typically a VERY disciplined person and healthy eater. I used to intermittent fast 16/8, drink green smoothies every morning, the whole nine yards. This is so beyond ridiculous it's not even funny (well actually it kind of is now that I know what the eff is going on). I'm going to war tonight with the sugar monster. I take the trazodone for insomnia but am willing to stay up all night tonight for battle. Bring it on.
I know I'm late to the thread but curious if anyone has found a solution?!
P.S. the dosage I've been taking nightly is 200mg.
Scottpwr7
17 Jan 2022
Omg!!! This sounds just like me!!! I just laughed so hard I had tears from reading this description because it is so accurate. I can't tell you how many times I have eaten so much I get sick and vomit before eating again because I because hungry again!!!
HungryAF
26 Aug 2019
I am laughing at tennisroyale's description of the hunger. I take it at night and I eat like a maniac ALL DAY.. anything that's bad.. its crazy how out of control the hunger is for me, no idea why but holy smokes. I just ate and im still starving... the medicine does make me sleep and feel better.. I need to figure out this food thing though :/
WildcatVet
13 July 2019
As with many... if not most... antidepressants, trazodone has the potential to increase appetite or do just the opposite:
"Metabolic
Common (1% to 10% of users): Anorexia, increased appetite, weight gain, weight loss"
Laurgol
13 July 2019
OMG! I have been taking this medication for about 8 years. Had no ides this was what was causing my nocturnal ravenous hunger. I have gained 50 lbs over the years and just chalked it up to middle-aged women stuff. Glad to see I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm going to go to doc and get off this stuff immediately.
Mimi1030
21 Nov 2018
Yes! After I take it I’m starving!
TennisRoyale
30 Aug 2018
I can’t believe there are just a few voices piping up online about this. I just assumed this was the side affect everyone dealt with but that I was particularly bad at controlling. I wake up at 2 with the insane need to eat something sweet and fatty. It’s a hunger I almost never feel in normal life. I am a snack seeking missile, a wild animal... the water trick just makes me get up to use the bathroom. Any other tricks??
Nissyneece
5 Aug 2021
Perfect way to describe this side effect
Zerd695
29 Aug 2018
I've been on Seroquel and Remeron for 3 years. Seroquel increase and decrease dose from 200mg to 300mg
Remeron mainly 45mg. After a couple years I started having sleepless nights again. Also on both those meds I gained max 20 lbs. I lost 10 lbs in between. I felt the medicines were not working. I weened off Remeron slow... got real depressed and still couldn't sleep and got on 100 mg of trazodone. So the past 5 months no Remeron and 300mg of Seroquel and 100mg of trazodone. I fall asleep almost every night now and I've actually lost weight. I'm so immune to the Seroquel but that w the trazodone I sleep good usually and no it has never made me hungry unlike the Remeron. It helps a little with depression and anxiety. For awhile I was waking up with horrible anxiety and since I got on trazodone that has went away. I do have minor panic attacks but I am just person w alot of anxiety, I should add I take Xanax also...
usually only 1 pill a little after I wake up. If I can't sleep at night which isn't often I will take 1mg of xanax... anyway to Answer the question 3 years later no, you shouldn't gain weight. If you find that you are getting the munchies from it and are worried tapper your dose a little :)
ralph-kramden
27 Aug 2018
I'm extremely late to this conversation. Being a lifelong insomniac (I fall into primarily the initial/can't-fall-asleep and/or periodic/awake&can't-return-to-sleep categories... sometimes not able to sleep at all) I've tried everything (melatonin, benadryl, excedrin pm, etc) but all seem to 'plateau' after a finite period and have either zero effect or bizarrely the exact-opposite effect where I'm WIRED. A VA doc put me on Trazodone in 2011-ish (50 then 100; now augmented with Mirtazapine) but almost instantly I too developed this INSANE insatiable nocturnal hunger. Up until starting this I was ALWAYS 175-180 lbs (6ft2) and now have exploded to 220!! When you rule out everything else & keep coming back to this, it just HAS to be a med change/initiation. I'm extremely hesitant to chug ANY liquid(s) for hours prior to bed as once I get up to void I CANNOT return to sleep. I may have to stop this medication as honestly prefer insomnia to OBESITY.
Notbrucewayne
18 June 2018
Yes! I have been taking trazodone at bedtime for several years, and if I do not fall asleep immediately I get hit hard with the munchies! I have learned that if I do not eat enough during the day or skip dinner the need to feed will wake me from my sleep! The only reason that this has not become a problem weight wise is that the medication I take during the day does the complete opposite. I can say that is the only side effect that I personally experience with trazodone
cleo130
14 Nov 2020
I don't experience the munchies, but if I fight sleepy feeling, I don't get the munchies. Instead, I lose the reason for taking the 200mg of Trazodone in the first place, which is to help me sleep! As to why I do this, I think I take it too soon, and I may need an increase in my dosage. I tend to take it when I take the rest of my medications, and I should wait until I've gotten into bed, and if I am able to fall asleep without taking it, great. But if I find myself laying there for more than 10 minutes, I should take it then. As to the munchies, I just hope I don't get them after reading about your posts!
chuck1957
25 Oct 2015
bekahdavies, Glad to help we don't always get all the information from our doctors,To me this is one of the best sites out there so feel free to ask any questions.We have a lot of great people here that have had the same problems or know about it and it is always a relief to know your not alone. Come back and post again if we can help you
PepperM
25 Oct 2015
After being on Trazodone for more than 10 years I still have the munchies at night. I usually eat a bowl of corn flakes with bananas before taking my medicine. That way I'm full when I take it but sometimes I'll wake up around 1 or 2 starving. What Chuck said works also. Drinking a glass of water to get that full feeling. I don't know if the higher the dosage the more hungry you are. I take 300 mg at bedtime. If anyone finds a way to stop the munchies keep us informed. Pepper
bekahdavies
25 Oct 2015
Thank you so so much! I was beginning to think it was all in my head!
chuck1957
25 Oct 2015
bekkahdavies; YES boy did it ever and the munchies just before going to bed is not good.But it does and can happen I was lucky it did not effect me to much because it worked so well that I had to head for bed while I still could make it up the stairs but if I did stay up some I could not stop looking for junk to eat. One other trick I would do is give myself the full feeling by drinking extra water prior to taking the medication so i would feel full.have a good day your not alone.
bekahdavies
25 Oct 2015
Thank you very much, so glad I'm not alone!
Related topics
depression, insomnia, trazodone, appetite, medication
Further information
- Trazodone uses and safety info
- Trazodone prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Trazodone (detailed)
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