You wake up in the middle of the night with a voracious hunger and the desire to eat sweet or high-energy foods . You go to the fridge and binge. You go back to bed but you don't rest well. You wake up with almost no appetite and feel guilty about bloating on sweets overnight, so you don't eat anything until noon. You feel more anxious as the day progresses. You eat something caloric and you go to bed. At night you wake up again and raid the fridge … even more than once.
If this happens to you very often, you could have what is known as night eater syndrome , a disorder that was first identified in 1955 by Dr. Albert Stunkard, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and director. of the Eating Disorders Program. Although it is a less well-known disorder than anorexia or bulimia , it affects more and more people, so it is important to know what it consists of in order to identify it and, if you suffer from it, to be able to remedy it as soon as possible.
How to recognize night eater syndrome?
People with night eater syndrome have the following symptoms:
- They have little appetite for breakfast and delay their first full meal for several hours after waking up. Either they are not hungry or they are worried about the amount of food they had during the night before.
- They tend to consume more food after dinner than during it and, in addition, they take more than half of the daily calories also after dinner and before breakfast, since the foods they usually eat at night are usually rich in carbohydrates and sugars.
- They have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, they wake up frequently, and then they often eat. These people may get out of bed several times to snack during the night and feel tense, anxious, worried, or guilty while eating. The behavior is not like a simple binge, but involves continuous ingestion over several hours and, furthermore, a posteriori, they do not produce enjoyment but guilt and shame.
- The person may have a changeable mood, be tense, anxious, nervous, agitated …, especially at night. The cause is that night eater syndrome is related to stress and is often accompanied by depression.
- Compensatory mechanisms are not commonly used to counteract the effects of binge eating, such as inducing vomiting or taking laxatives, something that, on the contrary, occurs in other eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.
The fact of suffering any of these symptoms in an isolated or occasional way does not mean, however, that you suffer from nocturnal eater syndrome. You need to have the majority and persist for weeks.
The psychological aspect
In many people, it is anxiety or depressive states that prompt them to eat. Unconsciously and in the wrong way, with food they try to fill a void and run away from their emotions so they don't have to face them.
The feeling of loneliness, sadness, pain, stress … are relieved with these binges but only momentarily, with which the psychological problem, far from being solved, worsens, as a vicious circle of wrong behavior is entered. Food is used as an antidepressant or an anxiolytic, but later feelings of guilt and a decrease in self-esteem appear. So the person feels bad and returns to seek refuge in food, with which the pattern repeats itself until it is consolidated.
What can be done?
Actually, according to studies, it deals with three problems at once: an eating disorder, a sleep disorder and a psychological one . So the combined treatment of the three seems the clearest way to remedy the problem of night eaters syndrome. A specialist in sleep disorders can help change patterns and fight insomnia; A nutritionist will be very useful to teach the patient to distribute the calories in a more equitable way throughout the day and to design a healthy eating plan; and a psychologist will be an invaluable ally in discovering and treating the causes of depression or anxiety.
5 little tips to start fighting the disorder
- Even if you are not very hungry, make an effort to eat a breakfast that satisfies you and that includes some dairy, fruit (or juice), cereals (or bread) … Start small, incorporating food gradually, until it becomes a routine . The important thing is not to lose the habit.
- Have something in the middle of the morning (a fruit or yogurt), eat well, have a light snack and have dinner at least two hours before going to bed, opting for foods that promote sleep, such as lettuce. Taking a walk or taking a relaxing bath will help you rest.
- Make a smart purchase in which fruits, vegetables, whole grains prevail … and avoid filling your fridge and pantry with cold cuts, sweets and other caloric products that encourage snacking. If you don't see them, it will be much easier for you to control yourself.
- Turn your bedroom into a pleasant place to rest. Monitor the temperature, the level of noise and light, the comfort of the mattress and the pillow … If you wake up, don't stubbornly want to sleep. Instead, try to distract yourself until sleep returns. Don't miss these 8 tricks to get back to sleep.
- Learn to do breathing exercises . They will help you calm down when you can't sleep. It is also highly recommended to regularly practice activities that promote relaxation of the body and mind, such as yoga or tai chi.
