Do You Have Nocturnal Hyperphagia?

This is a fancy name for compulsive, or nearly compulsive, eating at night. Remember Dagwood Bumstead and his night-time snacks? It’s seems to be pretty common; if you Google ‘night eating’ you get over 43 million results. Albert Stunkard, an emeritus professor in Penn’s Department of Psychiatry, was the first to describe the Night Eating Syndrome, or NES, in 1955. He reported that the food of choice is usually peanut butter.

The cause of NES is still a bit of a mystery. Some authorities say it’s due to changes in stress hormones (cortisols), others label it ‘emotional eating’, another group regard it as a disturbance of the circadian rhythm, another blame genetics, and yet another label it a form of depression. It’s certainly more common in obese people, but not exclusively so. A recent study reports that it’s common in diabetics, and may increase the risk of diabetic complications.

Even if we don’t what causes NES, it’s possible to get good treatment results using an antidepressant, sertraline. So maybe depression is the real cause . . .