Night Eating Syndrome

Night eating syndrome (NES) is an eating disorder, characterized by a delayed circadian pattern of food intake.[1] Although there is some degree of comorbidity with binge eating disorder,[1] it differs from binge eating in that the amount of food consumed in the night is not necessarily objectively large nor is a loss of control over food intake required. It was originally described by Albert Stunkard in 1955[2] and is currently included in the other specified feeding or eating disorder category of the DSM-5.[3] Research diagnostic criteria have been proposed[1] and include evening hyperphagia (consumption of 25% or more of the total daily calories after the evening meal) and/or nocturnal awakening and ingestion of food two or more times per week. The person must have awareness of the night eating to differentiate it from the parasomnia sleep-related eating disorder (SRED). Three of five associated symptoms must also be present: lack of appetite in the morning, urges to eat at night, belief that one must eat in order to fall back to sleep at night, depressed mood, and/or difficulty sleeping.

Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW135
Diagnosis: Night Eating Syndrome
US Patients: 1-2%; approximately 10% of obese persons
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset:
Brain Area: Reduced serotonin in the brain may be a factor
Symptoms: lack of morning appetite; urges to eat at night; belief in needing to eat to fall back asleep; depression;    difficulty sleeping
Progression: likely have 25+% of calories consumed after the evening meal; occurs more than twiceor more per week
Causes: The person is fully awake while eating, this is not “sleep-eating.”
Medications:
Therapies: Eating foods high in serotonin (bananas) or tryptophan (turkey) , but these do not affect serotonin or  tryptophan in the brain

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Support Group: nationaleatingdisorders.org; 800-931-2237

4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED

The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis

Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.

Night Eating Syndrome and Its Association With Depression Among College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
by Geethanjali Murthy on January 21, 2025
Introduction Night eating syndrome (NES) is categorized as an eating disorder characterized by a delayed circadian rhythm of food intake and involves evening hyperphagia and/or nighttime awakening and food consumption two or more times per week. Young adults showed a higher prevalence of night eating, and students who reported high stress, irregular sleep patterns, and disordered eating may be more likely to develop NES symptoms. Objective This study aimed to assess the prevalence of Night...
Associations of night eating with body mass index and waist circumference among health sciences students living in a post-conflict region
by Vojkan Aleksic on January 20, 2025
CONCLUSION: These findings showed that there is an absence of the association between night eating, BMI and waist circumference among students who live in a post-conflict setting. There may be other factors that mediate the relationship between food intake at night and body mass index.
Circadian Deregulation: Back Facing the Sun Toward Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) Development
by Mariana Verdelho Machado on January 8, 2025
Earth's rotation around its axis has pressured its inhabitants to adapt to 24 h cycles of day and night. Humans adapted their own circadian rhythms to the Earth's rhythms with a light-aligned awake-sleep cycle. As a consequence, metabolism undergoes drastic changes throughout the circadian cycle and needs plasticity to cope with opposing conditions in the day (when there is an increase in energy demands and food availability), and during the night (when prolonged fasting couples with cyclic...
Clinical and genetic associations for night eating syndrome in a patient biobank
by Hannah Wilcox on December 24, 2024
OBJECTIVE: Night eating syndrome (NES) is an eating disorder characterized by evening hyperphagia. Despite having a prevalence comparable to some other eating disorders, NES remains sparsely investigated and poorly characterized. The present study examined the phenotypic and genetic associations for NES in the clinical Mass General Brigham Biobank.