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CNN Live Today
Eating While Sleeping
Aired July 01, 2002 - 12:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: For some Americans, overeating is not just a daily struggle. It's a nightly one, too.
CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you made some changes, huh?
(voice-over): Nancy Jordan says she has been eating while she's asleep for more than 40 years.
NANCY JORDAN, SLEEP EATER: I can go through a loaf of bread at night, if I want to.
BLAKEY (on camera): And that's all while you're asleep?
JORDAN: Yes, dry bread.
BLAKEY (voice-over): The episodes happen seven or eight times a night, most every night, usually within an hour after she falls asleep.
(on camera): Did you sleep-eat the last time you slept?
JORDAN: What, last night?
BLAKEY: Yes.
JORDAN: Yes.
BLAKEY: What did you have?
JORDAN: I don't know. I surmise the bread that was left here.
DR. DAVID NEUBAUER, ASSOC. DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS SLEEP CTR.: It's as if they are zombie-like.
BLAKEY (voice-over): Dr. David Neubauer is a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins sleep disorder center in Baltimore. He says sleep- related eating is a compulsive behavior that mainly affects women, often beginning during their late teens. NEUBAUER: They are so driven for this behavior, a lot of times, they become rather belligerent, in a very uncharacteristic way, if somebody tries to stop them from getting to food.
BLAKEY: Nancy has tried stopping herself by putting obstacles between her bedroom and the kitchen, but nothing works.
(on camera): Now, you told me, you even put a bicycle chain on your refrigerator and locked it to keep you from going in. But somehow you managed to go in.
JORDAN: That's why I got this one, because I did the same thing with that one. Now, I didn't do anything with this because I didn't think I was going to go to freezer food.
BLAKEY: But you have.
JORDAN: Yes.
This is chicken breast. I had them the other night, cold, frozen.
NEUBAUER: What gets really problematic is when people decide that they need to cook something. And we've heard several episodes occurring where fires have started.
BLAKEY (voice-over): Sleep eaters sometimes try to devour nonfood items like cigarettes or soap. Nancy believes she has eaten some prescription medications while sleeping.
JORDAN: Some days, they are not there and I know I've taken extra.
BLAKEY: What causes it? Who knows. Some experts theorize disturbances like sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome may prompt an episode. Others blame stress.
JORDAN: Here's my Cardilupe (ph). That is the Parkinson's medicine.
BLAKEY: Which Nancy takes to help treat her sleep-eating. But the effect is limited.
JORDAN: The only way that I can cure it myself is just don't go to sleep.
BLAKEY: So Nancy never lays down for more than 15 minutes, a strategy that could be fueling her nightly fight with food.
NEUBAUER: Make sure that you are getting plenty of sleep, because, under circumstances of sleep deprivation, sometimes that makes it worse.
BLAKEY: Nancy Jordan says it would be hard for her sleep experience to be much worse. She is looking to find a cure.
Rea Blakey, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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