A Parasomnia Disorder: Nocturnal Eating Syndrome

Odd things sometimes happen when we sleep. Parasomnia means 'around sleep' and parasomnias are a group of unwanted, episodic physical phenomena that happen during different stages of sleep or are exaggerated by sleep. These events include: Sleepwalking, sleep talking, sleep sex, nightmares, night terrors, bedwetting, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, nocturnal seizures, grinding of teeth, rhythmic-movement disorder, restless leg syndrome and sleep eating. Most parasomnias are precipitated by stress and recently, some drugs are being linked to certain conditions.

NOCTURNAL SLEEP-RELATED EATING DISORDER is one of the parasomnias. This disorder (NS-RED) is one of several sleep related eating disorders. These are abnormal eating patterns occurring during the night and, although they are not as common as sleepwalking, sleep eating can occur during a sleepwalking episode. People with this disorder eat while they are asleep. They enter the kitchen and sometimes prepare food and eat without remembering the event when they awaken. These individuals gain weight and can be at risk for type 2 diabetes as well as other health conditions.

Another closely related disorder is NIGHT EATING SYNDROME (NES). This individual eats during the night, but is fully aware of doing so and must eat to be able to fall asleep. Each time she awakens, she must eat again to fall back to sleep. These individuals usually eat more than half their daily intake of food after the dinner hour and have little or no appetite for breakfast. Both the two conditions can interfere with nutrition, cause shame and depression and result in weight gain and the same health complications as compulsive eaters. Other dangers including choking while eating, injuries from cooking and preparing foods (such as cuts from knives and burns from hot cooking surfaces) fires and other dangers from eating non-food items and medications.

Nocturnal eating disorders affect more women than men. About 10 to15 percents of people with general eating disorders also have sleep-related eating disorders. Many sufferers diet during the day which may make them hungry and vulnerable, and then they binge eat at night when their self-control is weakened by sleep. Often people with sleep-time eating disorders have a history of alcohol or drug abuse and other sleep disorders. Nocturnal eating syndrome is most common in young women.

Sleep eaters typically eat high calorie, high sugar, high fat foods and may wake up with a stomachache. They usually don't have any memory of the episode and are surprised to find their face and bedding smeared with food or crumbs and wrappers all over the floor. They tend to eat odd combinations of food like potato chips dipped in gravy or hot dogs smeared with peanut butter and syrup. They eat frozen foods directly from the freezer and non-food items such as soap, cigarettes, pet food and cleaning products. Some sleep eaters have awakened to such a mess in the kitchen, they thought there had been a break-in during the night!

Sleep eating is a compulsion. Patients cannot control themselves, doing it at least once nightly, sometimes several times each night. These individuals can become belligerent and angry if someone tries to stop them from eating or getting to food. The condition typically persists every night and can last for years, sometimes decades.

There are an estimated 4 million Americans that may have sleep eating disorders, and it is contributing to the obesity epidemic spreading across the country. If you have an eating disorder of any kind, contact your physician. There is help available.