Two weeks restriction seems pretty harsh to me for taking 2 cookies! It sounds to me like you were pretty harshly affected by that as a child. Parents can create in their kids all sorts of problems by having "weird" rules.

It sounds to me like you are subconsciously "rebelling" against the deprivation of being on a diet, with the sort of background you have had with your family it isn't surprising that being on a diet right now would be bringing out those old rebellious tendancies.

I don't eat in the middle of the night, but I dream about it. I'm not sure if I'm dreaming and feeling guilty about something I "shouldn't have had" or if I'm enjoying the pleasure of eating in my sleep that I deny myself in waking life.

Last night in my sleep I had a "fruit smoothie" at least that was what it was supposed to be, in the dream it was some sort of liquid with a scoop of ice cream in it, and some fruit on a stick underneath. The lady at the store handed it to me and after I had the scoop of ice cream in my mouth she told me "Oh I was going to blend that up for you".

Too late, I had already eaten it. and the liquid was some sort of coffee which I hate the taste of anyway. So I'm dreaming "Why am I even eating this? It's nasty."

Probably had to do with food that I had yesterday and didn't need, didn't particularly want, but it was given to me and I ate it and then wondered why I had done so when it wasn't low carb food.

I think that while we sleep our minds work out conflicts, sometimes they work them out as dreams, sometimes as actions while we are still half asleep.

It sounds to me like you deeply resented the tight rein your family had on the food at your house when young, and your mind worked out the solution while you were asleep.

Eating is a natural thing, children shouldn't be made to feel like they are doing something wrong by eating, but you were made to feel that way, so a conflict developed in your mind toward food.

Now that you are trying to restrict yourself, that conflict is coming out again while you sleep. And since you said yourself that you don't always even remember getting up in the night to eat, it indicates to me that you don't get up to eat because you are hungry, but more because your mind percieves it as the solution to the "restrictions" of the diet.

I had a friend once who described to me a sleep walking episode she had. A woman had moved in with them to help with the housework and as a result Ruth lost her own bedroom to this woman. Her sleep walking episodes involved going to the door of her former bedroom and knocking, waking the woman up and then just standing there. Obviously she deeply resented this woman's intrusion into her space.

It is my guess that something similar is happening to you. Being on this diet has triggered childhood memories and reactions are similar. I'm sure that you don't "need" the food in the middle of the night, you just need to feel like you can control what you can and cannot eat.