Night Eating Syndrome

Some people are very careful to avoid dinner. But people who suffer from Night Eating Syndrome (NES or dinner syndrome) actually eat the middle of the night or early morning until sometimes cause sleep disturbance. Night eating syndrome is one of the mental disorder that makes people just want to eat in the evening after the dinner hour and did not eat again at breakfast or lunch.

This syndrome usually occurs in people who are undergoing a strict diet program so it does not eat for breakfast and lunch, and charge all the needs of the stomach at dinner. People who experience frequent dinner syndrome caused by depression and anxiety, diet prolonged or excessive boredom.

People with night eating syndrome often experience symptoms as follows:

• Little or no appetite at all during breakfast and lunch
• Eat more after dinner time
• Eating more than half the daily intake at dinner time
• Woke up at midnight to eat meals a lot and go back to sleep again

This syndrome can be dangerous to health because people with the dinner syndrome will experience a decrease in the hormone melatonin (sleep hormone) and leptin (a hormone that controls appetite). At the same time, the hormone cortisol (stress hormone) actually rose. What appears to be real, people with this syndrome will have less time to sleep, which causes various health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart and other serious illnesses.

Because people with the syndrome dinner decreased hormone melatonin and leptin, the hormone therapy can help to promote sleep and reduce hunger in the evening. Adding carbohydrate intake can also help because it can stimulate production of insulin which increases levels of tryptophan in the brain, which are substances derived serotonin. Besides helping people to sleep, serotonin also make people feel happy and glad that can overcome depression.