Topic Overview

Night eating syndrome is a condition in which people eat large amounts of food during the night. Most people with this condition do not feel hungry in the early part of the day. They may delay their first meal of the day for many hours and eat more than half of the food they eat each day after the evening meal.

People with night eating syndrome also have sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.

Night eating syndrome is different from binge eating disorder. People with binge eating disorder usually do not have episodes of binge eating during the night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.); when they do, they eat large amounts of food in a single sitting. People with night eating syndrome tend to eat small amounts of food many times during the night.

Experts still do not know very much about night eating syndrome, but they continue to study the condition.