Watch Those Midnight Munchies

We tend to think of it as just a case of midnight munchies -- but that late-night bowl of cereal or dish of ice cream may be signs of a medical disorder. A study in the issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association says people who consume little or nothing all day and then eat all night suffer from "night-eating syndrome."

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine teamed up with colleagues in Norway to compare a control group of normal eaters with adults who had no appetite in the morning but consumed huge amounts of calories at night. They say while the two groups ate about the same amount of food overall, the night eaters awoke from sleep more often and ate about nine times during a daily cycle, compared to four times for the control group.

The Norwegian study looks at hormonal differences between a control group and a group of night eaters that might account for why the night eaters wake up more often wanting to eat. It finds levels of melatonin, which helps you fall asleep, and leptin, which controls appetite, do not rise in night eaters the way they do in people who sleep normally through the night.

Dr. Joel Yager, of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, writes in an editorial accompanying the article that more study is needed before making any conclusions. He also does not yet support the use of melatonin or leptin supplements for night eaters as the study researchers suggested.

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