I’ve been bulking up for about a month or so and have started to see diminishing progress. I get 180-200 grams of protein and 250-350 carbs spread out through the day (i weigh 186). I’ve heard of a lot of people waking up in the middle of the night and eating protein. Is this effective, and what’s the best type of protein to eat? It seems logical because I’m usually hungry when I wake up regardless of how much I eat before I go to sleep.

does it help... possibly

is it going to make a big difference... most likely not

everyone sees diminishing returns over time... it's just the way it is, if we could all progress at an unchanging rate, then we'd all look like ronnie coleman

that takes major intelligence

Just get in more calories over a 24 hour period. Seriously, that's all it comes down to. You're seeing diminishing returns because it takes a lot of excess energy (re: calories) to synthesize new skeletal muscle tissue in people who have been at the iron for a while. More protein will help, obviously-- it's more calories and more aminos for growth, but where you add it (i.e. in the morning, at night) isn't going to make much difference. Similarly, you could probalby increase your carb &/or dietary fat intake too if you're purely concerned with gaining mass, although the trade-off is the potential for more fat accrual depending on your metabolic milieu.

yes I think many people figure out what calories they need to eat to grow based on body weight and then forget to revise these numbers once bodyweight has changed significantly. As Layne explained however we can't grow at the same rate forever.

If you wake up in the middle of the night like me as a matter of course and you feel hungry, then have a shake or something. Otherwise the uninterrupted sleep might have a better payoff than any xtra nutrition. I set my alarm to wake me midways through the night to take a piss. I find if I don't then I seem to get priapism in the wee hours (no pun intended) of the morning. For the sake of my friend's long term performance, I don't like him working unnecessarily