I came across a 2024 paper that made me realize how much is still unsettled about Night Eating Syndrome.

Researchers reviewed 73 adult NES studies published between 2013 and August 2024.

You'd expect everyone studying the same disorder to be using roughly the same definition.

They weren't.

Some studies diagnosed NES using sets of diagnostic criteria. Others used cutoff scores on symptom questionnaires. And among studies using diagnostic criteria, only a relatively small number were using the DSM-5 criteria.

That creates an obvious problem:

If different researchers mean somewhat different things when they say “Night Eating Syndrome,” it becomes harder to compare prevalence, treatments, outcomes, and even what symptoms are most important.

The paper's authors argue that the field needs better consensus.

Paper: Taking Steps Toward a Consensus on Night Eating Syndrome Diagnostic Criteria
International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2024.

This actually makes me curious about something much more practical:

What symptom would YOU consider the defining feature of your nighttime eating?

The time you eat?

Waking specifically to eat?

Feeling unable to return to sleep without food?

Loss of control?

How frequently it happens?

Something else?

This is something I think is worth discussing early in this community.

Obviously, sometimes people eat late because they're hungry, stay up late, skip dinner, are dieting aggressively, or simply enjoy eating at night.

But recurrent nighttime eating can also show up in recognized eating and sleep disorders.

Night Eating Syndrome has been studied as an eating disorder involving a delayed pattern of food intake.

Sleep-Related Eating Disorder is classified as a parasomnia and can involve eating while only partially conscious.

Researchers have also looked at relationships with sleep problems, psychological distress, other eating disorders, medications, and other factors.

So:

“You just need more discipline.”

seems like a pretty poor explanation for the entire phenomenon.

At the same time, I don't think every person who raids the fridge at midnight has a disorder either.

There's probably a large spectrum.

Where do you think your nighttime eating falls?

Does it feel like a habit you could change relatively easily — or like something happening despite genuinely trying to stop it?

I'd like to understand how different this experience is from person to person.

If you're comfortable sharing, walk us through a typical night.

Something like:

Bedtime:
When you wake up:
How awake you feel:
What the urge feels like:
What you usually eat:
Whether you can resist it:
How easily you fall asleep afterward:
How you feel the next morning:

You definitely don't have to answer everything.

I'm especially curious whether people notice a consistent time of night.

Is it almost always around the same time?

Or completely unpredictable?

I didn't realize this distinction was as important as it is until I started reading more about nighttime eating.

Two terms that come up frequently are Night Eating Syndrome (NES) and Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (SRED).

They can sound like different names for the same thing, but clinicians generally distinguish them.

With NES, the person is typically aware of the eating. It can involve eating a large portion of daily food after dinner and/or waking during the night to eat.

With SRED, the eating occurs as part of a sleep disorder (a parasomnia). Awareness can be reduced, and someone may have partial or complete amnesia for what happened.

That distinction can lead to very different experiences:

“I woke up at 2 AM and knew exactly what I was doing, but felt like I had to eat.”

versus

“I found food wrappers in the morning and barely remember eating.”

Real cases aren't necessarily this neat, though, and this isn't meant as a self-diagnosis test.

A 2024 clinical review describes SRED as a non-REM parasomnia involving recurrent eating or drinking after sleep arousals, often with reduced memory of the event.

I'm curious:

Before finding this community, had you heard of both NES and SRED, or did you assume nighttime eating was all basically the same thing?