Is Night Eating Syndrome A Cause For Your Obesity?

In many sleep and eating disorders, the inability to manage stress leads to sleep problems and obesity as food is normally consumed in large quantities during high stress periods, especially for emotional eaters.

Night eating syndrome is a disorder where the affected individual wakes up during the night and unable to fall asleep unless they eat something.

Foods eaten during the night are often high caloric in content and unhealthy. The night eating syndrome is beyond the person’s control.

If you have night eating syndrome, you take 35% or more of the calories after dinner time which leads to obesity. You will not feel hungry in the morning due to night eating. You are caught in the vicious cycle of binge eating during the night and less eating during the day.

Triggers for Night Eating Syndrome:

• Depression [Manage Depression]
• Anxiety
• Boredom
• Prolonged dieting
• Stress
• Sleep walking [Sleep Walking Treatment]

Night eating relieves temporarily the stress of these unwanted feelings but you feel guilt, shame, disgust and further depression due to this behavior. If you are suffering from night eating syndrome, you eat usually in secret and hide it from others.

Some people eat the food while sleep walking and are completely unaware of the problem until the family members discover the missing food.

With night eating syndrome, people sleepwalk into the kitchen and proceed to eat large amounts of high fat and high sugar content food at once. People with night eating syndrome eat something not edible and can sustain injury when using a stove or knives and could fall or sustain injury during the sleepwalking process.

Some people are engaged in dieting due to weight problems. While sleeping, their control is less and hence they tend to binge at night to satisfy their hunger.

Treatment for Night Eating Syndrome:

• Treatment of night eating syndrome begins with an interview and includes an overnight stay in sleep lab where your brain activity is monitored during night.
• Medications can be sometimes helpful for this disorder but avoid sleeping pills as they can increase clumsiness and confusion that can lead to injury.
• Night eating syndrome treatment involves anti depressants and medications which alleviate anxiety commonly associated with stress.
• Seeking treatment can help you to reduce episodes and avoid potential consequences such as weight gain, injury and reduced diabetes control.
• The treatment also includes improved sleep hygiene such as setting up a quiet, comfortable and low light room for sleep. Regular sleep routine should be established to avoid deprivation which can lead to night eating.
• Make your kitchen and sleep environments safe as you can sleep walking can cause injuries. Do not keep high calorie foods readily available as it can lead to obesity.