NIBBLING AT NIGHT COULD BE AN ILLNESS

Do you wake up at night and raid the fridge? It could be more than peckishness. "Night- eating syndrome" is a stress- related eating disorder first noted by DR Albert Stunkard. Sufferers typically wake with little appetite for breakfast and don't start eating until afternoon but by the evening are overeating. Then, they have trouble getting to sleep and wake once or more during the night for a snack. It occurs mostly, but not exclusively in overweight people and can itself lead to obesity. Recent studies estimate that 2.5 per cent of people are binge eaters.