Reviewed by Joseph Goldberg, MD
Do you often get out of bed for a midnight meal or to sneak a snack? Do you regularly eat a lot of food at night? You might have night eating syndrome. Or, depending on your other symptoms, you might have binge eating disorder.
How do you tell the difference?
Bingeing and night eating are two completely different types of eating disorders, but the symptoms and health effects can be similar. (You can even have both at the same time.)
Here are some ways to tell them apart.
Symptoms
In both disorders, you eat when you're not hungry. “People are turning to food for comfort,” says Kelly Allison, PhD. She’s the director of clinical services at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania.
- People with binge eating disorder often try to numb emotions, like sad or angry feelings, with food.
- People with night eating syndrome wake up and grab a meal or snack to soothe insomnia and help themselves fall back asleep.
“Both behaviors have a driven quality,” says Cynthia Bulik, PhD. She's the founding director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. “Once the urge arises it is very difficult and, for many, impossible to resist it until they give in.”
Another difference between the two conditions:
- People who binge eat have a lot of food in a short period of time (called a “binge” or “binge episode”).
- Night eaters graze on food throughout the evening. They might not eat a large amount at a time. They often wake up several times a night for something like a bowl of cereal, and then they go back to bed.
You might have night eating syndrome if you:
- Eat mostly at night, getting more than 25% of the day’s calories after the usual evening mealtime.
- Wake up three or more times a week to eat.
- Believe that eating will help you sleep better.
- Don't eat very much or feel hungry in the morning.
- Remember that you woke up and ate. (The condition is not the same as eating that happens during sleepwalking -- called “nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder” -- or after taking sleep medication.)
You might have binge eating disorder if you:
- Eat a very large amount of food in a short period of time.
- Feel that your eating is out of control (as if you can’t stop eating).
- Continue to have food after you're full (even when your belly hurts).
- Binge in secret because you're embarrassed.
- Overeat again and again, and feel upset or guilty afterward.
source : Is It Binge Eating Disorder or Night Eating Syndrome?
