What you might want to know about
Night Eating Disorder

Click here to take our nighttime eating disorder quizz

Night-eating disorder (or night eating syndrome as some people prefer) differs from bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder in the way the food is consumed as well as having more severe sleep disturbance.

It's not that night eating I did when I was feeling homesick as a Rotary Exchange student. I'd sneak down to the fridge while everyone was sleeping and dig into the 'Cool Whip' or 'Cookie dough' - and then try to smooth them over so it wasn't noticeable.

No, those were just unhealthy night time eating habits.

What you always wanted to know about
Night-eating disorder

a lack of appetite in the morning; combined with overeating at night, feeling agitated about the eating, struggling to sleep....and impaired hormones to do with sleep, appetite and stress.

So night eating syndrome isn't just the odd snack after everyone else has gone to bed.

For fascinating research on sleep and obesity and how it affects your hormones and weight - click here

The latter is how researchers for the University of Pennsylvania’s Weight & Eating Disorders Program know that this isn't just indulgence in a bad habit is that nighttime eating disorder is reflected by changes in hormone levels.

According to a study conducted at University Hospital in Tromso, Norway, nighttime eating disordered people:

• have lower levels of melatonin (hence their sleeping problems).

• fail to show a nighttime rise in the hormone leptin, which suppresses hunger

• have elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout a 24-hour period.

The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center looked at the behavioural aspects of night eating syndrome and found that:

Triggers for Night Eating Disorder?

Night eating disorder sufferers
experience the following...

* may leave the bed to snack at night.

* eat more than 50% of their daily food intake after dinner but before breakfast.

* Has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. They may wakes frequently and then often eat.

* then have little or no appetite for breakfast. But having said that I have a slightly different take on the whole breakfast debate that might interest you.

* are upset about how much was eaten the night before.

* This pattern has persisted for at least two months.

* Person feels tense, anxious, upset, ashamed or guilty while eating.

* Foods ingested are often carbohydrates: sugary and starch.

* unlike binge eating, night eating is not done in relatively short episodes. Instead night eating disorder involves continual eating throughout evening hours.

Night eating syndrome is thought to be related to stress, especially at night when the person may feel moody, tense, anxous, nervous, agitated or depressed.

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How common is
nighttime eating disorder

It's also does found amongst people of normal weight, just less often.

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