The Mysterious Case of Missing Food from the Fridge: Sleep Eating on a Combination of Melatonin and Eszopiclone

Abstract

Here we present a case of SRED induced by addition of melatonin to eszopiclone. For this patient, melatonin time release 3 mg was added to eszopiclone 3 mg at night for treatment of insomnia. He reported taking the melatonin for two nights and both mornings he found evidence that he had been up at night eating with no memory of it. He stopped the melatonin after these two nights and his sleep eating immediately resolved. Notably, he continued taking the eszopiclone after melatonin discontinuation. Prior research of SRED implicates a dopaminergic dysfunction in the pathogenesis of SRED. This case highlights a potential underlying mechanism for SRED involving a combination of melatonin and eszopiclone.