CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1780498
Case Report

Two Cases of Sleep-Related Dissociative Disorder with Episodes of Nocturnal Eating

Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, and Departments of Psychiatry, Hennepin County Medical Center, and University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
› Author Affiliations
Funding Source The author declares that he has received no funding from agencies in the public, private, or non-profit sectors for the conduction of the present study.

Abstract

Sleep-related dissociative disorder (SRDD) is a female-predominant psychiatric parasomnia that was first identified as a condition that mimics sleepwalking in 1989, and was included in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, 2nd edition, in 2005, with a subsequent expanding literature of case series and case reports. The objective hallmark of SRDD, found in about half of the reported cases, is sustained electroencephalogram (EEG) wakefulness during dissociative episodes emerging during wake-sleep transitions or after awakenings from light non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Herein are reported two additional cases of SRDD in two female patients aged 53 and 40 years with prominent histories of multimodal abuse (typical of SRDD), with childhood emotional and food deprivation abuse in Case 1, and childhood emotional, sexual, and physical abuse in Case 2. Both patients were affected by “sleep phobia” and had recurrent nocturnal eating episodes. Major findings from the cumulative literature on SRDD are reinforced by these cases, with additional findings being described, particularly nocturnal eating behaviors and priming/triggering factors.



Publication History

Received: 17 April 2023

Accepted: 22 September 2023

Article published online:
10 May 2024

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