Like all nights, do you get up to finish the pack of chips or chocolate cookies? This little -known reflex has a name: noctophagy. Dr. Arnaud Cocaul, a nutritionist doctor, tells us more about it.
Noctophagy, a food disorder occurring at night
Eating at three or four in the morning is a frequent reflex for some.
“Sleeping is” one of the things I hurt the most. I eat around midnight, 1 a.m. I fall asleep, I wake up to eat, then I go back “, Confided Chrissy Tigen, model and American host, in a recent interview.
The young woman does not laugh with her snacks since she claims to prepare “sandwiches or pork ribs “in the middle of the night. A habit obviously anything but harmless, which has a name: noctophagy.
Concretely, these are compulsive food crises occurring late at night and which are part of eating disorders.
“”By no longer respecting the circadian rhythm and the rhythm of the meals that punctuate the day, you unbalance the whole whole “, Confirms Dr. Arnaud Cocaul.
Indeed, as soon as night falls, the brain produces melatonin, sleep hormone. As for the hunger hormone – called Ghrelin – it falls (which explains why the feeling of hunger tends to diminish in the evening). Except that when you snack late at night – at 2, 3 or 4 in the morning – this natural biological rhythm is disturbed.
“Someone who gets up at night is in full hormonal skid. He jeopardizes his weight balance without knowing”, Indicates the nutritionist doctor.
So how to recognize this disorder in time and treat it? Here is some practical information to keep in mind.
Noctophagia: what support?
Once the disorder is spotted (an irrepressible need to eat during the night), an appointment with a specialized doctor must be made-most often a gastroenterologist. He alone can make a precise diagnosis. But the path is rather long to get to the end of these crises.
“TCA management is particularly complex and must rely on an experienced multi-professional team capable of apprehending nutritional, psychological and environmental aspects”, Confirms the French Association for Continuing Medical Training in Hepato-Gastroenterology. “It is also essential to obtain a therapeutic alliance with the patient to define the therapeutic objectives and the means to achieve it”, specifies the organization.
The patient must thus be followed by a dietitian, in order to reorganize his food contributions during the day, but also by a psychiatrist, in order to work on his food impulses. Sleep disorders will also be at the center of this care. Finally, the management of anxiety and depression, sometimes associated with this food disorder, constitutes another important therapeutic axis.
In some cases, drugs may be prescribed to the patient (antidepressants, supplements based on melatonin …).