Do you get up at night for a midnight snack? If so, there’s a name for it. It’s called night eating syndrome, or NES. Essentially, the condition is just as the name describes. It’s when a person gets out of bed to eat when they’re fully aware of what they’re doing. (People who eat while they’re asleep suffer from a different condition, nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder).
What are the symptoms of NES?
People with NES tend to have a few common characteristics. For example, people with NES don’t eat much for breakfast, they often eat about half of the food they consume after dinner hours, and they usually can’t fall back asleep until they have a snack.
How common in NES?
One in 100 people are nocturnal eaters. It can affect both women and men. It’s more common for people with eating disorders to develop NES. Due to dieting during the day, the body is pushing for food at night.
People with sleep disorders or a history of drug or alcohol abuse are at risk for NES as well.
How is a sleep disorder like NES treated?
A doctor will diagnose NES, to start. From that point, it’s likely the doctor will prescribe a sleep study. During a sleep study, a person stays at a sleep center where their activity and brain function can be monitored. Typically, patients stay for one night and are asked to arrive a few hours before they go to sleep.
Depending on the results of the sleep study, and a person’s physical and mental history, a doctor will suggest a treatment. Treatments could include changes to a diet or counseling to manage stress, a disorder, or substance abuse.
Doctors don’t typically prescribe sleeping pills as a treatment, but it may happen as a short-term solution for someone who’s dealing with the condition and an underlying problem can’t be found.
