Getting hungry in the middle of the night isn’t just about insatiable foodies. A genetic mutation is the cause, according to a study.
Waking up in the middle of the night to eat a spoonful of Nutella is, for some people, a compulsive attitude. Many people find the night starts at 11 p.m. and ends at 7 a.m. without any interruption. But for nocturnal eaters, it is mission impossible. Until now, no researcher has been able to explain why some people suffer from “nighttime craving syndrome” (1), that is, the ingestion of food in the middle of the morning. night. A faulty gene is the cause, according to a Sino-American study published in the scientific journal, Cell Reports.
One defective gene is enough
The authors of the study used mice that had two human genes inserted, PER1 and PER2, two related to sleep and sleep disorders. To find out which of the two was responsible, the researchers turned them off one after the other. When the PER2 gene was put to rest, the mice became very tired and much earlier than usual. When deactivated, PER1 causes an urge to eat in mice which prevents them from sleeping.
During a diet imposed by the researchers on all mice, those with faulty genes did not gain more weight than the others. Even over a 10 week period, the result is similar. The authors of the study discovered that in the case of nocturnal craving syndrome, weight gain is due to easy and permanent access to food and not to a metabolic factor.
For its authors, this study is also proof that the PER1 and PER2 genes, when synchronized, keep the sleep cycle and the hunger cycle aligned. Breaking the bond would cause an urge to eat overnight.
Recognition of this pathology
“For a long time, people thought that the nighttime craving syndrome was not real,” says the author of this study, Dr. Satchidananda Panda. In the scientific world, it has recently been considered to be an eating disorder in its own right by the American Psychiatric Association. Thanks to this study, the population’s perception of this pathology may change.
The results even surprised Dr Panda’s team: “We never imagined that we could cut out the cycles of sleep and the cycles of hunger, especially with a simple genetic mutation. This discovery is a first step towards a more in-depth analysis of these cycles. For Dr. Panda, “This opens the door to many questions for the future, including how these cycles are regulated. “
(1) Nocturnal craving syndrome, or nocturnal binge eating disorder: eating disorder manifested by nocturnal ingestion of more than 25% of daily caloric intake, or nighttime consumption of food twice or more per week .
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