Experts still do not know very much about night eating syndrome, but they continue to study the condition.

Night eating syndrome is a condition in which people eat large amounts of food during the night.

People with night eating syndrome tend to eat small amounts of food many times during the night.

In fact, obesity researchers say that the "night eating syndrome" is the only behavioral difference they can find between fat and thin people.

Night eating syndrome was first identified in 1955, but now it is being studied in greater depth.

Her eating pattern was typical of night eating syndrome.

People with night eating syndrome also have sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.

Night eating syndrome is different from binge eating disorder.

This is called night eating syndrome.

People who suffer from night eating syndrome generally:

The results showed that students that had higher levels of stress were more likely to have Night eating syndrome due to the inability to adapt.

Night eating syndrome, characterized by morning anorexia, evening polyphagia (abnormally increased appetite for consumption of food (frequently associated with insomnia, and injury to the hypothalamus).

Small double-blind studies of sertraline for eating disorders, such as binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome and bulimia nervosa indicated its effectiveness.

Night eating syndrome, or NES, also "midnight hunger", is an emerging eating disorder diagnosis, which primarily characterizes an ongoing, persistent pattern of late-night binge eating.

As Dr. Allison and Dr. Stunkard describe it, night eating syndrome is neither binge eating nor an outgrowth of anorexia nervosa or stringent dieting efforts.

A common though not invariable characteristic of night eating syndrome is repeated awakenings during the night, with the patient almost compulsively consuming food or drink each time in order to fall back to sleep.

A closely related disorder, known as night eating syndrome (NES), is diagnosed when a person eats during the night with full awareness and may be unable to fall asleep again unless he/she eats.

A study done by Jatturong R. Wichianson and colleagues at the University of Southern California showed a direct relationship between eating late at night(Night eating syndrome) and stress levels with college students.

Dr. Stunkard is also the lead author of a paper, "The Night Eating Syndrome," published in The American Journal of Medicine in 1955, describing this strange "pattern of food intake among certain obese patients."

Medical illnesses that increase obesity risk include several rare genetic syndromes (listed above) as well as some congenital or acquired conditions: hypothyroidism, Cushing's syndrome, growth hormone deficiency, and the eating disorders: binge eating disorder and night eating syndrome.

A study done by SL Colles, JB Dixon, and PE O'Brien on snacking at night relates obesity, binge eating disorder (BED), and psychological stress to night eating syndrome (NES).

Or perhaps they suffer from "night eating syndrome," a disorder described by Dr. Albert Stunkard, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and other researchers, which involves nearly constant nibbling, beginning in the late afternoon, coupled with depression and insomnia.

Now comes a book, "Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome," that describes in detail the various versions of the disorder that besieged me 40 years ago and that provides step-by-step guidelines to help people break this vicious cycle of disordered eating, self-disgust and depression.

In an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reported on the results of a study of 10 obese people who exhibited typical signs of night eating syndrome: lack of morning appetite, evening overeating and insomnia.

In his article Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Night Eating Syndrome: Sleep Disorders, Eating Disorders, Or both, Dr. Winkelman said, "Both [disorders] involve nearly nightly binging at multiple nocturnal awakenings, defined as excess calorie intake or loss of control over consumption."

Another problem that may arise is sleep-related eating disorder.

Sleep-related eating disorders can negatively affect your metabolic system.

Sleep-related eating disorders are characterized by abnormal eating patterns during the night.

And they did so even though Ambien's package inserts include a warning about possible sleep-related eating disorders.

In some cases, people with sleep-related eating disorders have histories of alcoholism, drug abuse, and other sleep disorders.

Treatment of sleep-related eating disorders begins with an interview and may include an overnight stay in a sleep lab, where brain activity is monitored during the night.

Sleep-related eating disorder can usually be treated with dopaminergic agonists, or topiramate which is an anti-seizure medication.

Since then, Dr. Silber said he had seen other Ambien users with sleep-related eating disorder.

About 1% to 3% of the general population is affected and 10% to 15% of people with eating disorders are affected by sleep-related eating disorders.

It can occur by itself or in addition to REM sleep behavior disorder, sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and sleep-related eating disorders.

Ms. Evans said her problems ended when Dr. Schenck diagnosed Ambien-induced sleep-related eating disorder.

Sleep-related eating disorder (SRED)

But Dr. Schenck said the cluster of Ambien sleep-eaters that his team discovered makes the drug the one most commonly associated with sleep-related eating disorder.

Although it is not as common as sleepwalking, nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder (NS-RED) can occur during sleepwalking.

No cause has been found for sleep-related eating disorder, but Dr. Schenck says he believed that it happened when the brain confuses two basic instincts: sleeping and eating.

Dr. Silber and a colleague were the first to describe sleep-related eating disorder with amnesia in Ambien users in 2002 in the journal Sleep Medicine.

He and colleagues are preparing a scientific paper based on their findings that a sleep-related eating disorder is one of the unusual side effects showing up with the widespread use of Ambien.

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Ms. Feltmann said that the package insert for Ambien warns that a sleep-related eating disorder may occur, but she cautioned that every case reported in patients taking Ambien might not necessarily be caused by the drug.

Often patients with sleep-related eating disorder caused by Ambien realize they have an eating problem, but do not associate it with the sleeping pill until they find a doctor who is aware of the relationship, Dr. Schenck said.

Dr. Carlos H. Schenck, a sleep disorders expert in Minneapolis and the lead researcher on the study, estimates that thousands of Ambien users in the United States experience sleep-related eating disorders while taking the drug.

In the more relaxed setting of the home, he says, there is a slight increase in what he termed "psychologically meaningful" behaviors for people with NREM disorders like sleepwalking and sleep terrors and, to a lesser degree, sleep-related eating disorder.

There had been scattered case reports of nocturnal eating in the medical literature going back to the 1940's, but in 1991, again in the journal Sleep, Schenck and Mahowald described 19 cases of what they were formally introducing as sleep-related eating disorder (S.R.E.D.).

Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (NSRED), also known as Sleep-Related Eating disorder (SRED), sleep eating, or somnambulistic eating, is a combination of a parasomnia and an eating disorder.

In his article Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Night Eating Syndrome: Sleep Disorders, Eating Disorders, Or both, Dr. Winkelman said, "Both [disorders] involve nearly nightly binging at multiple nocturnal awakenings, defined as excess calorie intake or loss of control over consumption."