Eating In Your Sleep?!

It's embarrassing to admit but I can only explain this bizarre behavior as a side-effect of my newest medication.  As I've reported, now many times, I seem to have found a medication combination that finally has freed me, if only temporarily, from the grasp of this unknown illness.  I'm still feeling better, three and a half months after starting amitriptyline.  I'm also taking lorazepam for sleep because, while the amitriptyline takes away many of my symptoms including fatigue and pain, it doesn't seem to help my sleep problems much.

I've had some very unusual side effects from this medication, the strangest of which involves an insatiable urge to eat in the middle of the night.  It seems to have gotten a little better as my body adapts but at first I didn't know what was going on.  I'd wake up in the morning with a half a peanut butter sandwich stuck to my arm, tortilla chips or Goldfish cracker crumbs everywhere in my bed and only a very vague recollection of having gotten up in the middle of the night and it was happening every single night.  I finally got smart and started leaving myself something simple and healthy to eat, like a banana, where I could easily grab it.  Then I'd wake up and find the banana on my night stand or IN my bed with only one bite taken from it. 

I could go on and on relating entertaining anecdotes of my "sleep eating" but the fact is, this reaction is rather disturbing.  As a child and young adult I talked and walked in my sleep from time to time but eating in my sleep?  No way!  I only have a very vague memory of these actions and sometimes, none at all.  I also fear the very real possibility that I'll choke on something I'm eating if I lay down with the food still in my mouth.

I've known people personally who took prescription sleep medications and did all sorts of crazy things in their sleep but I'm curious to know whether anyone else has had this happen while taking amitriptyline.  Although this baffling behavior is disturbing, I'd gladly endure it every night rather than be as sick as I was such a short time ago.