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:
Almost 5.0% (33/700) of the sample described symptoms consistent with sleep-related eating disorder. The in-patient eating disorders group had nearly twice the prevalence (16.7%) of the out-patient eating disorder sample (8.7%), which had nearly twice the prevalence of the next highest group, the student sample (4.6%). Subjects with sleep-related eating disorder endorsed more symptoms consistent with sleep disorders and had higher levels of depression and dissociation than those without nocturnal eating.