UNA REVISIONE NARRATIVA SULLA CARATTERIZZAZIONE DEL SONNO E DELLA PREFERENZA CIRCADIANA NEI PAZIENTI AFFETTI DA DISTURBO ALIMENTARE.

Eating disorders are characterised by dysfunctional eating behaviours and deeply negative beliefs about their weight and body shape. The literature on eating symptomatology is extensive and detailed, but systematic research about how sleep is characterised in such patients is currently lacking. The results that have emerged so far are contradictory and therefore do not allow a clear understanding of this topic. This paper aims to understand the current state of the art and which aspects need to be further investigated in the future. The results highlighted an actual sleep impairment in patients, although not always consistent. The most pronounced impairment seems to be in anorexia nervosa, moreover, this disorder has proved to be the most investigated. On the contrary, very few studies have evaluated sleep in patients suffering from binge eating disorder, especially using physiological measures. Few studies have also investigated circadian preference, thus leaving several questions unanswered. Future studies will not only aim at investigating sleep and circadian preference more rigorously and systematically, but they should especially try to relate specific aspects of eating symptomatology to specific sleep parameters. One of the advantages of such an approach would be to support clinical practice through sleep-centred treatments that could indirectly act on the eating symptomatology itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]