Women more likely to suffer from 'sleep-eating'

Although a number of sleep disorders, like sleep-walking, are well-known, there is one condition which very few people have heard of, ABC News reports.

This "secret" disorder is called Sleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) or sleep-eating.

Amy Koechler started sleep-eating almost as soon as she could walk.

After falling asleep, she would get up, toddle off to the kitchen, find a snack and eat it – and she did all of this without ever waking up.

ABC News claims the majority of people who suffer with the condition are women and it states doctors think it is a result of genetics rather than hunger.

Ms Koechler inherited the disorder from her mother.

Sleep expert, Carlos Schenck told ABC News that sleep-eaters function in a zombie-like state.

He said: "They know where the kitchen is but they have no judgment, no inhibition."

An ITV programme being broadcast in the autumn, called Things I Do In My Sleep, will document the life of a sleep-eater who claims the condition is ruining his life.

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