People with SRED or NES eat little or the same amount of food during the day and wander around the kitchen at night. Sometimes they don't realize it. Night eating syndrome (NES) and sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) are two different diseases that have one thing in common - night snacking.
Night snackingmay have a medical background. The most common causes of such eating disorders are:Night Eating Syndrome (NES) and SRED - (sleep related eating disorder) , which is a form of sleepwalking.
Skipping breakfast and overeating after returning from work is just a bad eating habit, conducive to weight gain. But if you consume a large portion of your daily ration just before going to bed, otherwise you cannot fall asleep, consider it a symptom of Night Eating Syndrome (NES) - a disorder involving uncontrolled eating and drinking at night.
NES symptoms
A hallmark of NES is the inability to fall asleep or continue to sleep after waking up without eating or drinking anything. people with this disorder sometimes get up several times a night and satisfy their thirst and hunger. These are usually meals rich in carbohydrates and fats as well as high-calorie sweet drinks. However, in the morning they have the so-called morning anorexia. They have no appetite for several hours after waking up. They only feel hungry in the afternoon. They eat over 1/4 of the daily amount of food just before going to bed and at night. Contrary to the daily foodies, they do not feel pleasure after eating a meal. On the contrary. They feel guilty, ashamed of rummaging around in the fridge at night. But they can't control it. They eat because they have to. For they have two options: they will either eat at night and sleep reasonably well, or they will refrain from it, but then they will not wink and will be sleepy and tired in the morning. As a rule, they choose the first solution, and in order not to gain weight - they drastically reduce the caloric content of meals during the day. Doing so exacerbates the disruption of the circadian rhythm of eating.
People with NES are as active during the day as others, but eat in the evening and at night. Such disharmony translates into worse well-being. The longer eating at night, the more fatigue and irritability increaseduring the day.
If you have NES
- ask the household members to lock the kitchen door before going to sleep
- remove food from other rooms, apart from mineral water
- eat 4-5 times a day at the same time (the last time 3 hours before going to bed)
- start your day with a hearty breakfast; make yourself eat it, even if you don't have the appetite
- plan physical activity during the day
SRED or unconscious feasting
Sleep related eating disorder (SRED), which is a form of sleepwalking, is much less common than night eating syndrome.
The two conditions are very different. NES sufferers consciously eat, SRED sufferers are unaware of it. In a dream, they go to the kitchen and make a meal for themselves. Sometimes they even try to cook. They ignite the gas, cut or chop the food with a knife.
As they are not aware of what they are doing, they compose the meals quite bizarrely, e.g. they smear a sandwich with honey and mustard and add jam to the herring. Usually, however, they take the first thing they can get their hands on from the refrigerator or kitchen cupboard. As a result, they can drink a glass of olive oil or eat a piece of yellow cheese that they hate. When they wake up, they don't remember at all that they ate at night. They are made aware of this by a mess in the kitchen or food scraps found in the bed. People with SRED eat normally during the day and actually eat little at night. Therefore, obesity poses a minor threat to them. For them, a cause for concern is the lack of control over their behavior, which may be dangerous. They are afraid that they will cut themselves, burn themselves or drink something harmful (e.g. washing-up liquid). In SRED, eating at night may be related to other sleep disorders (including restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea). Their treatment is possible in specialized sleep medicine centers and gives good results.
How can people suffering from this disorder help themselves? Doctors advise them to get enough sleep. Then sleep will become shallow and they will wake up to any noise from the bustle of the kitchen. They should also ask their relatives to make it difficult for them to access food. The more obstacles on their way to them, the greater the chance that they will wake up and regain control of their behavior.
Night food: when to see a specialist?
If the cause of night eating is mental or somatic diseases, they must be treated to stop binge eating in the evening and at night.
When a psychiatrist or family doctor does not find the cause of NES, and self-management of this condition has not been resolvedsuccessful, we should report to a specialist center for the treatment of eating or sleep disorders. Therapy generally consists of taking antidepressants before going to bed to help you sleep better, increase your physical activity during the day, and maintain a he althy eating pattern. Sometimes it includes behavioral programs to help you get rid of the habit of eating at night and dietary recommendations (planning meals, composing low-calorie snacks).
Night food: reasons
Eating at night has many reasons. It can be a consequence of mental illness such as depression and other emotional problems. It is caused by somatic diseases, especially diabetes and gastroesophageal reflux disease. In the first case, we eat anything to prevent a further drop in blood glucose, and in the second, to ease the pain, because a little something neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in the stomach. NES is also associated with eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa. Usually, however, chronic stress and the associated insomnia are to blame. We deal with it differently. Some read books, watch TV, while others grab a snack. Over time, they become addicted to this "sleeping aid." Although the stress wears off, they still eat at night because the circadian rhythm of eating has already been disrupted. He has shifted from daylight hours to night hours and their hunger wakes them up from sleep.
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