| Summary: | Nocturnal (night) eating syndrome and sleep-related eating disorder have common characteristics, but are considered to differ in their level of consciousness during eating behavior and recallability. To date, there have been no large population-based studies determining their similarities and differences. We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey for Japanese young adults aged 19–25 years to identify factors associated with nocturnal eating behavior and sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior using Munich Parasomnia Screening and logistic regression. Of the 3347 participants, 160 (4.8%) reported experiencing nocturnal eating behavior and 73 (2.2%) reported experiencing sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior. Smoking (<i>p</i> < 0.05), use of hypnotic medications (<i>p</i> < 0.01), and previous and/or current sleepwalking (<i>p</i> < 0.001) were associated with both nocturnal eating behavior and sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior. A delayed sleep-wake schedule (<i>p</i> < 0.05) and sleep disturbance (<i>p</i> < 0.01) were associated with nocturnal eating behavior but not with sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior. Both nocturnal eating behavior and sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior had features consistent with eating disorders or parasomnias. Nocturnal eating behavior but not sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior was characterized by a sleep-awake phase delay, perhaps representing an underlying pathophysiology of nocturnal eating syndrome.
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