Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder, affecting 4-5% of women, 2-3% of men and 30% of obese individuals. It is characterized by recurring episodes of binge eating without the regular use of extreme compensatory behaviours such as purging or excessive exercise. Individuals with BED feel that they have lost control over their eating behaviours and that they are unable to stop causing significant distress and impairment.Another disorder that also causes significant distress and impairment is insomnia. Insomnia is a sleep-wake disorder where a person subjectively reports a dissatisfaction with their sleep quality or quantity and where there may be difficulty maintaining or initiating sleep and/or early-morning awakenings.Insomnia is commonly found to be associated with eating disorders such as BED. In particular, individuals with BED reported taking longer to fall asleep compared to individuals without BED.Previous research has found that poor sleep quality negatively affected treatment outcome of substance use disorders and increased the relapse potential after being treated. Where there are significant overlaps between addiction and BED, sleep deprivation may have similar effects on treatment outcome in BED.The current study will examine whether sleep disturbance, such as insomnia, has an impact on treatment outcome for BED using men and women across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The findings from this project willhave significant impacts on research and treatment for BED suggesting the importance of considering sleep when conducting studies on the development, maintenance, and treatment of BED.