A student who was left confused after going up three dress sizes realised she was gorging on calorific food during her sleep, thanks to a rare eating disorder.
Kate Archibald, a 20-year-old Aberdeen University student, was diagnosed with nocturnal sleep eating disorder, meaning she sleep-eats during the night, waking up the next morning with no memory of her culinary expeditions.
You ate a whole wheel of cheese? Heck, I'm not even mad, that's amazing.
Archibald, who went up from a 10 to a 16 during her first year, said she had "absolutely no idea" why she was putting on weight, the Metro reported.
"And I used to get in massive rows with my flatmates about all this food that was going missing – I was adamant I hadn’t eaten anything.
"It was only when I woke up one morning surrounded by chocolate bar wrappers that I realised I must have been sleep-eating."
She added: "It isn’t really seen as an eating disorder, apparently it’s more of a parasomnia.
"Basically, my body is conditioned to be hungry in the night and want food – even if I don’t."
Nocturnal eating disorders can be the result of an underlying medical problem, such as stomach ulcers or depression, other sleep disorders such as sleepwalking, or a traumatic event.
Medication such as Topiramate can be taken to treat the disorder, as it works on the appetite centre of the brain to dull it.