Patients with eating disorders, particularly those with anorexia nervosa, rarely if ever complain of insomnia. People with bulimia nervosa frequently binge into or throughout the night and tend to fall asleep after midnight, often sleeping through the morning hours. Increased amounts of sleep may occur following eating binges. Bulimia nervosa patients anecdotally report sleepwalking and binge eating, occasionally even shopping for food during the night after having fallen asleep with partial recollection of the episode. It is not uncommon for those with bulimia to have sleep-related eating and often report sleepwalking as children.

The treatment of an eating disorder is based upon a comprehensive assessment of the patient and the family. Treatment interventions vary and depend on the patient’s age, premorbid functioning, duration of illness, severity of weight loss or gain, the presence of coexisting psychiatric disorders or, in bulimia nervosa, and the frequency of the binge eating/purging episodes. Bulimia nervosa is largely treated on an outpatient basis. Sleep abnormalities usually resolve with return to more normal weight and eating behaviors.