Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome: A Step-by-step Guide to Breaking the Cycle

Kelly C. Allison · Albert J. Stunkard · Sara L. Thier

may 2004 · New Harbinger Publications

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The statistics are powerful and alarming: Perhaps as many as 6 million Americans suffer from night eating syndrome, or NES, a newly identified eating disorder which describes behavior patterns in which an individual obsessively consumes more than half of his or her daily caloric intake after eight o'clock in the evening. More significant is the further finding that more than 33 percent of morbidly obese individuals, persons who are 100 or more pounds overweight, are affected by this disorder. Experts agree that NES shares characteristics of not only eating disorders but also sleep and mood disorders. Sufferers tend to exhibit symptoms such as feelings of anxiety and guilt, insomnia, or interrupted sleep. Typical NES behaviors include absent appetite during the day, a consistent pattern of eating more food after dinner than during the meal itself, and recurrent episodes of waking and eating throughout the night. This book offers a step-by-step strategy for managing and overcoming this disorder.

From this book, you will first learn to identify the signs of NES, and then use journaling exercises to discover what automatic thoughts surround your night eating. Having identified the problematic behaviors, you'íll find out how to break theses patterns with healthier food choices, more structured mealtimes, and a series of relaxation and visualization techniques.

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Kelly C. Allison, PhD, is an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She received her PhD from Miami University in 2000. Her research interests include characterizing and treating night eating syndrome. She is also interested in the effects of socio-cultural influences on disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.

Albert Stunkard, MD, is professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he founded the Weight and Eating Disorders Program, of which he is currently director emeritus. He received his MD from Columbia University in 1945. He is the author of nearly 400 publications, mostly in the field of obesity and his research has been supported for forty years by the National Institutes of Health.

Sara L. Their, M.Ph., currently works in the program area of the Robert Wood Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. She received her BA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1987, her M.Ph. at University of California, Los Angeles, in 1991. She is presently a PhD candidate in health policy.