| dc.description.abstract | Night eating syndrome (NES) is characterized by a circadian delay in eating and
nocturnal awakenings with ingestions. Its onset is related to stress and the syndrome is
linked to depressed mood, anxiety, sleep problems, and obesity. Among patients with
clinical depression, night eaters report greater rumination than non-night eaters. The
objective of Part A of this study was to investigate whether a link between rumination
and NES severity exists in a nonclinical sample of students after accounting for severity
of depression symptoms. Several online self-report measures were completed by 713
students (mean age = 20.72 years, SD = 4.76). Night eaters (n = 47) reported higher
levels of perceived stress, rumination, depression symptoms, trait and state anxiety, and
poorer sleep quality than non-night eaters (n = 666). NES severity explained a small but
significant portion of variance in rumination after accounting for depression symptoms.
The objective in Part B was to examine the effectiveness of a novel mindfulness-based
intervention (MBI) for the treatment of NES using a single blind parallel design. Night
eaters (N = 17; mean age = 24.18 years, SD = 6.20) participated in a four-week MBI in
which eight were randomly assigned to the MBI group and nine to the waitlist control
group using a simple 1:1 allocation ratio. Following the intervention, the MBI group
reported a significant decrease in NES severity, rumination, and perceived stress.
However, over the same period of time, the waitlist group also reported decreases in these
variables. Although no statistical significance was found when comparing both groups in
the amount of change they experienced, an examination of effect sizes showed that the
MBI increased night eaters’ mindfulness (large effect size; no change in waitlist),
improved their sleep quality (medium effect size; worse sleep quality in waitlist), and
decreased depression symptom severity (small effect size; larger decrease in MBI group),
which is suggestive of clinically significant improvement. Overall, the MBI was
successful in increasing mindfulness but did not affect rumination. As such, rumination
was not found to explain any benefits following the MBI. It appears that it is largely the
presence of depression symptoms that explains the relationship between NES severity
and rumination, suggesting that night eaters with co-morbid depression may be at
increased risk of psychopathology. Mindfulness, however, may be a promising
intervention for improving depression symptoms among night eaters. | en_US |
