Do you eat a lot of food at night, even after you feel full? Then you may want to see a specialist. Researchers have discovered a fairly rare eating disorder whose signature is excessive eating may just signal other mental health issues.
"Night eating syndrome is characterized not only by eating at night--certainly many college students might have a late night study fest with eating--but it's also characterized by other things, like feeling that you can't eat in the morning, and feeling like you have to eat in order to go back to sleep," said Rebecka Peebles, one of the researchers, in an interview with Reuters Health.
The new findings are important amidst National Eating Disorders Week, which began on Feb. 23. The week brings awareness to devastating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.
"Eating disorders are complicated and vexing problems and we don't exactly understand the pathophysiology of them," said Aaron Krasner, Director of the Adolescent Transitional Living Program and Silver Hill Hospital, in an interview with Forbes. "Certainly there is both a genetic component and an environmental component."
The latest study reveals a new type of disorder. While it overlaps with binge eating, though, it's not the same. It occurs in just under 3 percent of students after controlling for binge eating, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a problem that shouldn't be examined further. In fact, those with night eating disorders were also more likely to have a history of depression and self-injuring.
"Often times these people are eating throughout the night," said Cristin Runfola, one of the researchers, in an interview with Reuters Health. "They might even be waking up and feeding multiple times throughout the night, so if you're frequently hearing that someone's getting out of bed throughout the night and you're noticing that food is missing there might be something going on."
The findings help reveal a bit more about this disorder, and also about binge eating disorder. By learning as much as possible about these disorders, researches can better treat individuals who suffer from them.
The findings from the latest study were published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
