Night Eating Syndrome - A Real Condition!

Author: Marko Balašević Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

In this article, learn more about Night Eating Syndrome - A Real Condition!. Food consumed at night is usually unhealthy, high in calories..

Getting up at night due to hunger may be due to a genetic predisposition, according to a new study.

Nocturnal eating syndrome can occur when the genes that synchronize eating patterns and those of sleep are disrupted. This changes the eating time, which eventually leads to overeating and gaining extra pounds .

The condition affects 1-2% of people, and symptoms include waking up at night and not being able to sleep without eating before.

Recently, the syndrome has been classified as an eating disorder. However, the reason for its appearance remains unclear. Food consumed at night is usually unhealthy, high in calories, which leads to weight gain and sometimes obesity .

During laboratory studies, experts found that when the gene that controls the biological clock is "silenced," hunger occurs in the time allotted for sleep . Mutations in the same gene, which are also linked to sleep disorders, lead to more time spent sleeping.

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According to researchers, genes work together to keep the processes of sleep and eating in sync, and disorders in some of them lead to a violation of eating habits or those of sleep.

The survey data are published in Cell Reports .

Night Eating Syndrome - A Real Condition!

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