Do You Have Night Eating Syndrome?

Night eating syndrome is seen in about 6% of people who seek treatment for obesity, according to Albert Stunkard, MD, who is director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  Night Eating Syndrome is defined by poor or no appetite for breakfast; the consumption of more than half of daily calories after the evening meal, disturbed sleep. Night eaters often wake up, at least once a night to consume high-carbohydrate snacks.

Night eating syndrome is associated with depressed mood, poor levels of confidence and self esteem, low daytime hunger, and difficulty losing weight in obese people.  It is currently not an official eating disorder.

Night eating syndrome is characterized by 5 primary signs:

1. Not feeling hungry in the morning
2. overeating in the evening
3. difficulty falling asleep
4. waking at night and eating
5. depression

For many people, late-night eating is just a habit — people often feel fatigued in the evening, and stressed from the demands of the day. If you live alone, no one is around to see you eat, and it’s an easy time to eat without accountability.

Experts are unclear exactly what Night Eating Syndrome is. Some experts consider it a form of eating disorder. Others see it as a dysfunction in the body clock, a sleep disorder that it may be stress induced, physiological rather than psychological (possibly hormonal).

Many people have repeated awakenings in night eating syndrome during the night, in which food and drink is almost compulsively consumed each time in order to fall back to sleep. Sometimes you don’t have a memory of waking at night to eat. Or you can feel as if you can’t get back to sleep without eating. The other form of night eating is a sleep-related eating disorder.  This type of night eating is a parasomnia, much like sleepwalking. People are disturbed to find that they have gotten up to eat in the middle of the night, since they may not have a memory of eating at night.