7 min read
This article is more than 7 years old
Feature
When your nighttime munchies become dangerous: Night Eating Syndrome
Food is a sensory source of pleasure. But for people living with Night Eating Syndrome, it can also be the crux of physical and psychological pain.
Published
Updated
By Yasmin Noone
Image: Night Eating Syndrome: When you can’t stop eating after dark (Getty Images)
What is Night Eating Syndrome?
They just can’t stop because they don’t even think about the foods they are eating and may not even stop to taste the food.
Our understanding of food is complex. It’s emotional, sensual and physical. But it can also be dangerous and unhealthy. For people living with Night Eating Syndrome (NES), food can cause psychological pain, as eating becomes a tool for self-harm inflicted under the veil of night.
NES, an eating disorder included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), is similar to binge eating with one major difference – as the label suggests, people living with NES only binge eat at night.
“People who have this condition overeat abnormally large portions of food, consuming around 25 per cent of their food intake for the day in a space, of perhaps, two hours at night,” says Accredited Practising Dietitian, Gabrielle Maston.
The symptoms of NES, she stresses, should not be disregarded as habitual evening snacking.
The psychological and physical aspects of the syndrome are quite serious, explains Maston as the spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia. And the symptoms of NES, she stresses, should not be disregarded as habitual evening snacking.
“The difference between night eating and sitting in front of the television eating all night is that the latter is still a conscious decision or a habit. People can stop doing it if they really thought about it. But people who have NES often feel a lack of control over their actions.
“They are eating while they are in a bit of a trance. They know they are doing it, but it is almost like a fight or flight response and they have tunnel vision. They just can’t stop because they don’t even think about the foods they are eating and may not even stop to taste the food.”
"They know they are doing it, but it is almost like a fight or flight response and they have tunnel vision." (Getty) Source: Corbis RF Stills/Getty Images
The symptoms are serious
It’s difficult to truly know how many people in Australia have NES, given it may commonly be mistaken as another condition and overlaps with other mental health concerns like depression, anxiety and eating disorders such as binge eating.
But psychoanalytic psychotherapist at Bayside Psychotherapy, Adam Szmerling, says he’s seen many patients living with NES. “NES is not the most common food disorder but it is on the rise – maybe it’s 10 per cent of all the eating disorders we would see. But more people are also coming into the practice with that label – NES – and self-diagnosing.”
Szmerling explains that with NES, eating sessions can go on for hours. As a result, it’s likely to disturb your sleep patterns, influence your weight, negatively impact your relationship or job, and deteriorate your physical health and mental wellbeing. But given the low awareness of NES in the community, it’s usually when everything falls apart that the person living with the syndrome will seek formal support.
“For some people NES is extreme,” he says. “They may not sleep until 4am as they might be binge eating all night. NES may cause their relationship to suffer or they are single because believe no one wants them and avoid intimacy.
It’s the same as thinking, ‘I have one flat tire, so I will slash the other one’.
“Their physical health will be affected and perhaps their doctor has told them they need to lose weight. Why? Well, most commonly, people will binge on sugar and carbs: I’m yet to meet someone who says they binge on broccoli and Brussels sprouts. They’ll eat the things they believe are bad for them.
“For someone I worked with, Tim Tam’s had a very unique meaning for them growing up. And that might be a meaning that dominates in [adulthood]. For others, they’ll eat chips and bread. But people are not usually waking up and eating just one or two chips. Even if they start out eating a little bit, they will usually beat themselves up for doing it and think ‘if I’ve had one bad thing so I may as well go all out’. It’s the same as thinking, ‘I have one flat tire, so I will slash the other one’."
Food: a source of 'unpleasure' for some
Szmerling is on the phone attempting to answer how food – a source of sustenance, social activity and sensory pleasures for so many – ends up being used as a form of pain?
“Food, as everyone knows it, is not just about survival. It starts that way and then becomes something pleasurable. And then, something else happens. ‘Unpleasure’. Freud called it ‘the death drive’ [which means a drive towards self-destruction]. Another way of thinking about it is that we get satisfaction but then something unpleasant happens [related] to that satisfaction.
“The reason something like night eating may continue is not simply because eating at night gives someone pleasure. People complain about the syndrome. But, there must be something [subconsciously] in it for them to keep doing it. That’s the mystery.”
Food, as everyone knows it, is not just about survival. It starts that way and then becomes something pleasurable. And then, something else happens. ‘Unpleasure’.
Although the scientific world is still debating why people with NES eat at night instead of in daylight hours – some theories relate it to anxiety while others claim it is caused by a disruption in circadian rhythms – the good news is that support is available for people living with the condition.
Treatment will vary person to person, Szmerling says, but using a multidisciplinary approach involving a GP, dietician and psychologist, those who live with NES can move on from its grip.
Szmerling has first-hand experience of seeing people recover from NES. In his practice, he says, it involves changing the meaning a person ascribes to food.
“There are unique experiences that people have in childhood and that might be masked [by food] and translate into symptoms. The meaning of food varies between people. And the mother is usually the first person to give us food and feed us, so whatever relationship one develops with their mother they may then develop with food.
Once the person put it all of this into words, they stopped night eating. I think that’s a pretty good outcome as they put into words something that was otherwise being put into their body: food at night.
“Someone [I treated once] who had a lot of [underlying] anger directed towards their mother. On the surface, everything was nice but for various reasons they didn’t feel they could express that they thought their mother was wrong.
“The person may have come in saying they were depressed and had anxiety, [and that’s why they were eating at night]… but the real issue was about the anger they had towards their mother. To them, they thought it was forbidden to get angry with their mother.
“Once the person put it all of this into words, they stopped night eating. I think that’s a pretty good outcome as they put into words something that was otherwise being put into their body: food at night. [Through counselling], they ended up processing the unprocessed.”
Treatment does help
It’s important not discount NES if you are experiencing symptoms.
Finding root cause of an individual’s NES is not always so simple. But through therapy, Szmerling says, food can take on a different meaning. “The old meaning persists but new meanings get added. It’s not hard to treat but it comes down to how motivated people are to [get better]: they need a motivation to explore and a willingness to understand what’s underneath their behaviour rather than writing it off.
“It’s important not discount NES if you are experiencing symptoms. If you feel like you are effected and there is a regular pattern in your life where you are waking up or staying up at night to eat, it doesn’t matter what people say: come into talk to someone, receive support and get treated.”
Are you in need of support?
If this article has raised an issue for you or someone you know, please seek support by contacting Lifeline on 13 11 14.
If you want to access support for a behaviour issue you or someone else is dealing with, visit Smart Recovery Australia online.
Listen to our podcasts
You know pizza, pasta and tiramisu, but have you tried the Ugly Ducklings of Italian Cuisine?
Everybody eats, but who gets to define what good food is?
Get the latest with our SBS podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.
Watch SBS On Demand
Bring the world to your kitchen
Eat with your eyes: binge on our daily menus on channel 33.
