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Mood and Weight Gain May Come Down to How Well You Sleep
Sleep may be related to how well you sleep, how you feel or perform during the day, and your weight.
Sleep disorders are fairly common, especially insomnia, but there are specific disorders that are truly disturbing for the individual and that can wreak havoc on their lives. This is especially true when there is an absolute absence of any awareness by the person who has a sleep disorder.
Recently, a new sleep disorder called sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) was named and added to the list of NREM parasomnias. It is now part of the ICSD-3 group of disorders of arousal, along with sleepwalking, confusional arousals, and sleep terrors. As is common for arousal disorders, SRED is defined by behaviors that are not usual while you are in NREM sleep.
These SRED behaviors are marked by episodes of eating and drinking during which the person is only partially or totally unaware of what is happening. There is a difference between SRED and night eating syndrome (NES), a disorder in which people who are awake at night eat too much.
SRED is linked to at least one of the following symptoms: eating strange combinations of food or substances that are not edible or are toxic; doing harmful or potentially harmful things during sleep while looking for food or cooking food; and/or having…
