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 characteristic 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, the first written specifically to people struggling with NES, offers a step-by-step strategy for managing and overcoming this disorder. Readers will first learn to identify the signs of NES, and then use journaling exercises to discover what automatic thoughts surround their night eating. Having identified the problematic behaviors, the reader learns how to break the patterns with healthier food choices, more structured mealtimes, and a series of relaxation and visualization techniques.