People with nocturnal binge eating, both an eating disorder and a nighttime disorder, get up at night to eat, which can have significant consequences in their daily lives.
- Nocturnal binge is characterized by eating very large amounts of food at night with no compensatory behavior behind it.
- Nocturnal binge is both an eating disorder and a sleep disorder.
- Treatments exist to treat nocturnal hyperphagia.
If you get up at night to eat uncontrollably and in large quantities, you may have nocturnal hyperphagia. According to MSD Manualhyperphagia differs from bulimia because, following food intake, there is no compensatory behavior such as induced vomiting or taking laxatives.
Eating at night in excessive amounts
We speak of nocturnal hyperphagia when food crises only occur at night, at least once a week and for more than three months. “Most of the time, the crises are triggered during my insomnia, explains Clotilde, 20, to Slate. I go to bed around midnight, and around 4 or 5 a.m., if I can’t sleep, I’m anxious or bored, I tell myself that I have to go eat. I take everything that comes to hand: a yoghurt, leftover cold pasta, a giga-plate of cereals…” Thus, nocturnal hyperphagia is also a sleep disorder, since the person who is affected wakes up to eat or is awakened by the feeling of hunger.
This disorder can therefore have significant health consequences. First of all, weight gain with, in the long term, risks of obesity and diabetes. People who are affected may also have cardiovascular problems, develop anxiety and psychic disorders.
Another consequence of nocturnal binge: the financial impact of this disorder. Indeed, by eating at night, you increase your overall consumption and therefore eat foods that were planned for other times.
Treatments to cure nocturnal binge
But suffering from this disorder is not inevitable, solutions exist. Management of overeating consists, according to the MSD Manual, of cognitive and behavioral therapy, sometimes interpersonal psychotherapy, and drug treatment. The objective is to understand what disorder this health problem comes from, to identify its origin and to fight it.
“By investigating with patients, a therapist may find that some eat because they are awakened by their sleep disorder, while others are awakened by their eating disorder, explains Karen Demange, clinical psychologist, to Slate. It is necessary to make a differential diagnosis in order to know if it is the egg or the hen.“If you suffer from this disorder, the first thing to do is talk to your general practitioner who will be able to tell you which specialists to consult to treat this problem.
In France, binge eating disorder affects approximately 3.5% of women and 2% of men in the general population during their lifetime, according to the MSD Manual.