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Comparative studies with NES-free studies show that those affected by Night Eating Syndrome wake up an average of four times a night and get up almost every time to eat something. However, they do not stuff themselves to the limit, they consume some part of the daily portion of calories each time they wake up and as a result, as is assumed, after 19 p.m. they eat up to half of what they should consume throughout the day.
There is a lot of money behind the pharmaceutical industry. And for the health of the individual, great fear. These two factors are enough to drive this gigantic machine of cause and effect.
Is there or isn’t there?
Apparently, based on fear and ignorance, people can be told anything. Therefore, reports of new disease entities, often coming from overseas, are received with a great deal of disbelief. Doctors with diagnostic criteria for the new syndrome can argue for years with physiologists who argue that there is no point in adding a scientific name to ordinary human biology. More or less since 1955, a debate has been going on about the Night Eating Syndrome (NES), known in Polish as the Night Eating Team.
The matter is additionally complicated by the fact that even from quite careful reading of the source texts it is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions what this syndrome is, what it is not and what diagnostic limits it has.
Confusion
The likely cause of these inconsistencies is the Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (SRED) phenomenon. It was included in the “International Classification of Sleep Disorders”, quoted, for example, in the list of parasomnias in the materials of the Sleep Medicine Center of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.
It is probably easy to make a mistake, because here sleep, and here dream, in both names the word “night” also appears, but the difference between both diseases is fundamental: it is about being aware of your actions.
In a nutshell, disturbances consist in the fact that at night, when, following not only social norms, but also in accordance with the natural circadian rhythm, a person should sleep, he does not sleep, but eats.
I know what I’m doing
However, it is not about snacking in the evening or people who go late to sleep and therefore eat dinner at night.
SRED sheep, or those suffering from Sleep-Related Eating Disorders, are not aware that they have got out of bed and eat. They do not wake up during this activity or they move on the border of reality and sleep.
– There are such situations when a person wakes up in the morning and notices with horror that the kitchen is full of remnants of various foods from the refrigerator – says Dr. Wroclaw.
In the case of NES, or the Night Eat Team, you know exactly what you are doing, but you just can’t control it. Eating is a compulsive activity.
Already in the morning
The dispute as to whether it makes sense to distinguish NES as a separate syndrome, or not the broadly understood SRED suffices, because in some cases the ranges of symptoms overlap, will probably continue for a long time. Despite these quarrels, it is worth learning about the characteristics of a person with the Night Eat Syndrome, which, according to Dr. Anna Zmarzły, MD, is a serious disease that determines the patient’s entire life.
Indeed, contrary to the name at night, the morning is already the cause of the evening gluttony attack. The so-called morning anorexia. A man willingly skips breakfast, which automatically disturbs the rest of his nutritional day, in the evening he is more and more hungry, and at the same time more and more nervous, because he knows what will happen when he tries to go to sleep.
Comparative studies with NES-free studies show that those affected by Night Eating Syndrome wake up an average of four times a night and get up almost every time to eat something. However, they do not stuff themselves to the limit, they consume some part of the daily portion of calories each time they wake up and as a result, as is assumed, after 19 p.m. they eat up to half of what they should consume throughout the day.
Although they do not eat indiscriminately, these meals are not valuable, balanced and hunger-satisfying food. During nocturnal feedings, NES sheep mainly choose foods high in carbohydrates. This is the trail that led the researchers of the subject to the questionable hormonal balance of people exhibiting the features of the Night Eat Syndrome.
Hormones going wild
After endocrinological tests it turned out that, indeed, not everything is fine with these hormones. In the evening, the level of leptin and cortisol increases, and melatonin decreases, the increase of which is responsible for healthy and restful sleep. Its low rates are likely due to episodes of insomnia, common in people with NES, and the ease with which they wake up once they manage to fall asleep. In turn, jumping leptin in the evening makes you feel hungry, and cortisol is called the stress hormone. Its level is constantly elevated in people with NES. The hormonal theory would explain a lot, but there have already been voices that endocrine disorders are not the cause, but the effect of NES. However, most researchers emphasize that, indeed, people with NES are much more prone to depression and mental illness. The nocturnal episodes of eating that they cannot stop fill them with shame. They feel guilty, they promise themselves that they won’t let it happen anymore, and yet when it comes down to it, they are helpless in the face of compulsions. They do not enjoy eating, on the contrary, they sometimes disgust them.
Three realms
– Night Eating Syndrome is diagnosed much more often in the United States than in Poland – says Dr. Anna Zmarzły, MD. – As it is a severe mental illness, it requires specialist treatment (psychological and psychiatric). Dietary support can be a useful element of therapy, but treatment should not be started with it. Pharmacological support is applied, incl. drugs included in the group of antiepileptics, however, pharmacology is only a supportive treatment; Psychotherapy plays a very important role.
Nutritional intervention consists, inter alia, in on teaching patients to follow constant, healthier mealtimes. Of course, an important factor is also the cure of accompanying diseases, e.g. insomnia or depression.
It is not without reason that Albert J. Stunkard, considered one of the most important researchers of the NES, wrote in one of his works that Night Eating Syndrome is a special combination of eating, sleep and mood disorders. In order to get rid of the entire trio, each component of this orchestra playing the nocturnes must be treated individually.
Text: Julia Wolin
Read more about the Night Eating Team
Also Read: Forever Sleepy
Irregular eating is the same problem – read in Zdrowie.TvoiLokony