Sleep-related Eating Disorder

Definition:
People with a sleep-related eating disorder have frequent episodes of compulsive eating while sleepwalking during the night. The person has impaired consciousness while preparing food and eating it, with little or no memory of these actions the next morning. A sleep-related eating disorder can cause dangerous use of kitchen appliances or injury from eating something toxic.

Symptoms:
Little or no appetite for breakfast, Eating more food after dinner than during the meal, Eating more than half of daily food intake after dinner hour, A persisting pattern for at least two months.

Statistics:
Nocturnal eaters showed a mild reduction in sleep efficiency and duration due to a moderate sleep fragmentation, whereas the percentage of each sleep stage was not significantly affected. Nocturnal eaters scored higher at many subscales of the EDI-2, at the BITE symptoms subscale, and at the BIS attentional impulsivity subscale.