What Is Night Eating Syndrome?

Our body has a general eating time, just like sleep patterns. Just as we sleep in the evening and wake up in the morning, the earliest and fastest working hours of our metabolism are in the morning.

Therefore, getting up early in the morning and having breakfast within an hour after waking up is of great importance in increasing the metabolic rate.

What Is Night Eating Syndrome?

After having breakfast, it is necessary not to spend six hours between meals. These hours may vary according to the rhythm, biorhythm, daily movement and sleep pattern of the person. However, people with night eating syndrome cannot adapt to their eating patterns during the day.

People with night eating syndrome have sleep disruptions accompanied by waking up full in the morning, delaying the first meal for a few hours after waking up, overeating in the evening, and nighttime food intake.

Night eating syndrome occurs when at least 50% of daily calories are consumed with snacks after dinner, waking up at least once three nights a week, and then having high-calorie snacks, and this condition lasts for at least three months.

People with this condition may experience emotional states such as guilt, distress, tension, pessimism and irritability after eating.

What Causes Night Eating Syndrome?

Night eating syndrome occurs when 50% of the daily calorie intake is consumed late after dinner, and this is done by waking up at least three days a week, three nights a week.

If the person wakes up and does this and repeats for three months, it is necessary to suspect night eating syndrome. He states that fatty and sugary foods that give pleasure to more people, that is, foods that increase blood sugar rapidly, are consumed at night. There may be other reasons besides hunger in this table. These:

• Sleep disorders
• Psychological problems, depression or a high degree of anxiety
• Hormonal reasons (The person gets hungry due to imbalances in blood sugar)

How Is It Diagnosed?

In order to diagnose night eating disorder syndrome, it is necessary to first see an internist and investigate the causes. Hormone tests are important in determining the causes. It is important to seek help from a psychologist or psychiatrist, if necessary, and then to consult a dietitian to arrange the nutrition plan.

In addition to night eating syndrome, there is also “binge eating disorder”, which has been very common in recent years. This disorder is seen with the loss of eating control, with excessive intake of food in a short time. Binge eating disorder affects women more often than men. Estimates are that 60% of individuals with binge eating disorder are female and 40% are male.

Individuals generally overeat in a short period of time, such as 2 hours, and lose control of their eating during binge attacks. They feel like they can’t stop themselves. People with binge eating disorder eat faster than normal and prefer to be alone during this time. After this eating episode, they begin to dislike themselves and may exhibit depressive behaviors.

Binge eating can occur at least once a week for an average of 3 months. It has been observed that these people are at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol level, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and gallbladder diseases.

Body satisfaction is also lower in these people, who are also diagnosed with obesity, compared to individuals with normal eating behavior.

How Is It Treated?

While night eating syndrome is generally closely related to stress, depression and low self-esteem, its incidence is higher in obese people than in thin or normal weight individuals. Because these people sleep poorly and wake up and eat in between, they are very full when they wake up in the morning and may not have the desire to eat. That satiety process continues throughout the day, and this time when it’s evening, he gets hungry again and his energy needs start to increase.

In the treatment of night eating syndrome, the underlying causes should be investigated first. The underlying cause may be hormonal or psychological.

Evening hours are the most inactive time of the day when the metabolism slows down. Eating too much during these hours causes weight gain even if you don’t eat anything during the day. During night eating syndrome, the goal should be primarily to balance the eating plan during the day. For this, you should try to stay away from the stress factors that cause night eating. Afterwards, foods that cause overeating should be removed from the table and should not be kept at home if possible.

During night eating syndrome, high sugar and fatty foods are generally preferred. These foods are low in volume and high in calories.

Simple sugar-containing carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes, pastries or sweets should be avoided, and whole grain breads, whole wheat pasta or bulgur should be preferred instead.

After putting the dinner in order, a snack should be planned two to three hours before bedtime.

This snack can help balance blood sugar and sleep during sleep, and prevent you from waking up and eating or going to the refrigerator by preventing hunger when you are just going to bed.

There should be a balanced snack consisting of protein and carbohydrates to balance blood sugar throughout the night. These snacks are; a serving of fruit and a glass of milk or yogurt; It can be planned as a slice of feta cheese and a slice of whole wheat bread or a rusk. If the desire still persists, tomato-cucumber or seasonal greens can be eaten as a snack. Since approximately 90-95% of vegetables are water, their energy is very low, so they can be consumed easily. Since the amount of fiber is high, it also helps to increase the feeling of satiety in the stomach.

A few days after dinner and night snacks are in order, the person wakes up hungry in the morning. Afterwards, it tries to provide energy intake without skipping meals throughout the day.

Exercising Helps Balance Blood Sugar

Exercising regulates the whole biorhythm of a person. By balancing the appetite metabolism, problems such as loss of appetite or increased appetite are prevented, and emotional eating attacks are reduced. Since exercise also releases the hormone of happiness, it makes the person more positive and can prevent such syndromes from entering her/his life.