Sleep Eating Disorders

Synonyms: Parasomnia - Sleep- Related Eating Disorder, Sleep Disorders, Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder, Night Eating Syndrome.

Sleep-associated eating disorders are, typically, abnormal eating behaviors that occur during the night

Sleep- related eating disorder is part of the 'Parasomnias' a term given to undesired events occurring during sleep.

People with Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (NS-RED) often walk into the kitchen and prepare food without a recollection of having done so. Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (NS-RED) is a fairly new term that is still being investigated.

If this kind of eating binge occurs often enough, a person can experience weight gain, increasing their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Sleepwalking and excessive nocturnal overeating characterize Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (NS-RED). NSRED may develop slowly, with time or it may begin quickly with nightly episodes of eating from the start. This disorder does not become better with time and may even be a cause for depression.

A closely related disorder, known as Night Eating Syndrome (NES), is diagnosed when a person eats during sleep time with full awareness and is unable to fall asleep unless they have a snack.

NS-RED and NES are variants of the same disorder in that, people with NS-RED eat while they are still sleeping while those with NES eat when they are conscious. However, they are similar in that both are off shoots of sleep and eating disorders. Both of these conditions can interfere with an individual's nutritional status, cause shame, may bring about illnesses, result in depression and weight gain.