Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Nocturnal Eating Syndrome

Abstract

Eating and sleeping are vital functions of human life. They reciprocally influence each other in both quality and quantity. Nocturnal eating syndrome (NES) and sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) are two distinct diseases that share symptomatology of an abnormal association between the timing of eating and sleep. NES is represented by purging, a non-controllable manner of eating in the evening before sleep, followed by morning anorexia. SRED is a chronic condition showing eating episodes afer sleep onset with partial to complete amnesia. Terminology was used confusedly until the third edition of the International Classifcation of Sleep Disorders, which defned SRED in the parasomnia section. Unlike NES, SRED usually does not respond to psychotherapy but to medication, most promisingly, to topiramate. Both are related to weight control problems, leading to obesity or excessive preoccupation with weight control issues.