Chapter 8: Eating and Sleep–Wake Disorders

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the lecture on eating disorders, obesity, and sleep–wake disorders.

Eating Disorders

Psychological conditions characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits and an intense preoccupation with body weight or shape.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder marked by recurrent binge-eating episodes followed by compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, fasting, or excessive exercise.

Binge

Consuming an objectively large amount of food in a discrete period (e.g., ≤ 2 h) while experiencing a sense of loss of control over eating.

Purging

Inappropriate compensatory technique (e.g., vomiting, laxatives, diuretics) used to rid the body of food or calories after a binge.

Anorexia Nervosa

A disorder characterized by severe caloric restriction, significantly low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body-image.

Restricting Type (AN)

Subtype of anorexia in which weight loss is achieved primarily through dieting, fasting, and/or excessive exercise without regular binge-purge episodes.

Binge-Eating/Purging Type (AN)

Subtype of anorexia marked by recurrent bingeing or purging while still maintaining a markedly low body weight.

Binge-Eating Disorder (BED)

An eating disorder featuring recurrent binges without regular compensatory behaviors, accompanied by distress about bingeing.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

A numerical value of weight in relation to height (kg/m²) used to classify underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obesity.

Obesity

A medical condition defined (for adults) as BMI ≥ 30; associated with elevated health risks such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Night Eating Syndrome

Pattern in which individuals consume a third or more of daily calories after the evening meal and awaken to eat during the night.

Electrolyte Imbalance

Disturbance in sodium or potassium levels, often caused by repeated vomiting or laxative abuse, potentially leading to cardiac arrhythmia or seizures.

Lanugo

Fine, downy body hair that may grow on the limbs or face of individuals with severe anorexia nervosa as the body attempts to insulate itself.

Amenorrhea

Absence of menstruation; once a diagnostic criterion for anorexia nervosa but now considered a medical consequence rather than required criterion.

CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy)

Transdiagnostic psychological treatment targeting core eating-disorder psychopathology (e.g., overvaluation of shape/weight), effective for bulimia and other eating disorders.

Family-Based Treatment (FBT)

Therapy for adolescent eating disorders that empowers parents to restore the child’s weight and normalize eating while addressing family dynamics.

Very-Low-Calorie Diet

Medically supervised regimen of ≤ 800 kcal/day, often using liquid meal replacements, for short-term weight reduction in severe obesity.

Bariatric Surgery

Surgical procedures (e.g., gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy) that alter the digestive system to induce substantial and durable weight loss in morbid obesity.

Dyssomnia

Category of sleep–wake disorders involving problems with the amount, quality, or timing of sleep (e.g., insomnia, hypersomnolence).

Parasomnia

Category of sleep disorders characterized by abnormal behavioral or physiological events occurring during sleep or sleep–wake transitions (e.g., nightmares, sleepwalking).

Insomnia Disorder

Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep, occurring ≥ 3 nights per week for ≥ 3 months with daytime impairment.

Sleep Efficiency (SE)

Proportion of time spent asleep while in bed, calculated as (total sleep time)/(time in bed) × 100%.

Hypersomnolence Disorder

Excessive sleepiness despite ≥ 7 h of sleep, evidenced by prolonged main sleep or recurrent daytime sleep episodes, causing distress or impairment.

Narcolepsy

Sleep disorder featuring irresistible daytime sleep attacks, cataplexy, short REM-latency, often with sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations.

Cataplexy

Sudden, brief loss of muscle tone triggered by strong emotions, characteristic of narcolepsy.

Sleep Paralysis

Transient inability to move or speak while falling asleep or upon awakening, sometimes accompanied by vivid hallucinations.

Hypnagogic Hallucination

Vivid, dream-like sensory experiences occurring at sleep onset (or on awakening, hypnopompic) often in narcolepsy.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea

Breathing-related sleep disorder involving repeated episodes of upper-airway obstruction, snoring, and oxygen desaturation leading to daytime sleepiness.

Central Sleep Apnea

Sleep disorder where breathing repeatedly stops due to lack of respiratory effort rather than airway blockage.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)

Treatment device that delivers pressurized air through a mask to keep airway open during sleep in obstructive sleep apnea.

Circadian Rhythm Sleep–Wake Disorder

Persistent sleep disturbance due to misalignment between an individual’s internal clock and environmental or social sleep demands (e.g., jet-lag, shift-work types).

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

Cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus that serves as the master biological clock regulating circadian rhythms.

Melatonin

Pineal hormone whose secretion is stimulated by darkness; helps regulate circadian rhythms and sleep–wake cycles.

Polysomnographic (PSG) Evaluation

Comprehensive sleep study that records brain waves, eye movements, muscle activity, heart rhythm, and breathing during sleep.

Actigraph

Wrist-worn device that estimates sleep–wake patterns by recording movement, used in home-based sleep assessment.

Stimulus Control

Behavioral insomnia treatment that strengthens the bed–sleep connection by limiting bedroom activities to sleep (and sex) and leaving bed when unable to sleep.

Sleep Hygiene

Set of lifestyle practices (e.g., consistent bedtime, limiting caffeine, reducing light/noise) intended to promote healthy, restorative sleep.

Scheduled Awakenings

Behavioral technique for childhood sleep terrors involving waking the child briefly before typical terror times to reset sleep cycles.

Nightmare Disorder

Parasomnia of recurrent, distressing dreams during REM sleep that awaken the sleeper and impair daytime functioning.

Sleep Terrors (Night Terrors)

Episodes of abrupt terror arousals during deep NREM sleep with screaming and autonomic activation, usually no dream recall.

Sleepwalking (Somnambulism)

Parasomnia involving complex motor behavior arising from deep NREM sleep while the sleeper’s consciousness remains absent or minimal.