What is sleep eating disorder?

Sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) is a sleep disorder characterized by unusual eating behaviors during sleep. If you have this disorder, you sleepwalk and sleep eat without remembering the event afterward.

Most people with SRED have an episode of eating nearly every night. Sleep eating can occur at any time in the night. You may have more than one sleep-eating event per night. These episodes tend to occur even though you aren’t hungry or thirsty.

People with SRED tend to prefer thick, sugary, and high calorie foods such as peanut butter or syrup. The foods you eat during sleep-related events may be ones you don’t normally enjoy. Alcoholic drinks are rarely consumed.

During a sleep-related eating event, you eat food very quickly. An entire episode may last for only ten minutes. This includes the time it takes to get from your bed to the kitchen and back to bed again.

You will often sloppily handle food during these events. You may or may not prepare hot or cold foods properly. You may get injured during an episode from handling knives and utensils. You may also start a fire or get burns from careless cooking.

SRED may develop slowly over time. It may also begin quickly with nightly episodes of eating from the start. It is long-lasting and does not seem to ease up over time. It may be a factor in causing depression. This can result from a sense of shame and failure to control the eating. Some people with SRED may avoid eating during the day. They may also get too much exercise in an attempt to prevent obesity.

Problems resulting from SRED include the following:

Eating strange forms or combinations of food, such as raw bacon, buttered cigarettes or coffee grounds
Eating or drinking toxic substances, such as cleaning solutions
Eating foods to which you are allergic
Insomnia due to sleep disruption
Sleep-related injury
Loss of appetite in the morning
Stomach pain
High cholesterol
Excessive weight gain and obesity
Worsened control of diabetes

What are symptoms of sleep eating disorder?

Sleep-related eating disorder is defined by repeated episodes where you rapidly binge eat and drink during the night. These episodes are out of control and tend to occur when you are only partially awake. You may only have a slight memory or no memory of the binge. This may occur nightly. The food is often highly caloric and consumed in strange combinations. People with sleep-related eating disorders might accidentally injure themselves by eating toxic substances, burning themselves or causing fires.

People with sleep eating disorder often:

Have repeated episodes of “out-of-control” eating and drinking when you sleep
Eat strange forms or combinations of food
Eat or drink inedible or toxic substances
Have eating episodes that disturb your sleep, causing insomnia. As a result, your sleep is not refreshing or you are very tired during the day
Injure yourself
Do something dangerous while getting or cooking food
Have a loss of appetite in the morning
Have your health decline from eating foods that are high in calories

It is also important to know if there is something else that is causing your problem. It may be a result of one of the following:

Another sleep disorder
A medical condition
Medication use
A mental health disorder
Substance abuse

What are risk factors for sleep eating disorder?

It is not known how many people have SRED. Like other eating disorders, it is much more common in women than in men. Women represent about 65% to 80% of patients with SRED. The average age when it first occurs is 22 to 29 years. It tends to be an ongoing and long-lasting problem.

SRED can develop on its own. It can also result from the use of certain medications. This is especially true of medications used to treat depression and sleep problems.

More than one sleep disorder may even be found in a person with SRED. More than half of all people with SRED had another parasomnia before SRED began. Sleepwalking is the most common sleep disorder related to SRED. Many people with SRED were sleepwalkers as children.

Other sleep disorders that can be closely linked to SRED include:

Other factors that may lead to the development of SRED include the following:

Use of certain medications
Ending the habit of smoking
Ending the abuse of alcohol or drugs
Stress
Dieting during the day
Daytime eating disorders
Narcolepsy
Hepatitis (liver infection)
Encephalitis (brain swelling)

How to diagnose sleep eating disorder?

SRED can do more than just disturb your sleep. It can also harm your overall health and put you at risk of an injury. If you have SRED, you should see a sleep doctor.

The doctor will need to know when the eating binges began. She will want to know how often they occur and how long they last. The doctor will need to know your complete medical history. Be sure to inform her of any past or present drug and medication use.

Also, tell your doctor if you have ever had any other sleep disorder. Find out if you have any family members with sleep problems. It will also be helpful if you fill out a sleep diary for two weeks. The sleep diary will help the doctor see your sleeping patterns. This data gives the doctor clues about what is causing your problem and how to correct it.

You may need to do a sleep study. This is called polysomnography. The test charts your brain waves, heartrate, and breathing as you sleep. It also records how your arms and legs move. The best sleep study will also record your sleep on video. This will record any unusual behaviors that occur during the night. This study will help reveal if your eating binges are related to any other sleep disorder.

How to treat sleep eating disorder?

Safety measures need to be addressed first. Some safety precautions include putting locks on your kitchen doors and cabinets and securely storing knives. Make sure that the path from your bedroom to the kitchen is safe.

It is important to get plenty of sleep regularly. Episodes may increase with sleep deprivation.

Your doctor may need to change some of your medications especially if you are taking certain sleeping medications. A sleep doctor should check to see if you have another sleep disorder, like sleep apnea. If so, you will also need to be treated for it. Doing so will make it easier to treat the SRED.

SRED tends to respond well to the use of medications. Once you begin taking the medicine, your doctor may have you chart your progress with a sleep diary.