Every night throughout Britain a very small number of people will get out of bed to eat without being able to stop themselves. Some will be wide awake, others will be fast asleep; what they’ll all have in common is a complete and total inability to control their nocturnal nibbling.
Curse Of The Night Eaters, which I produced and directed for Channel 5‘s Hidden Lives documentary strand, captures this bizarre and normally hidden nighttime behaviour in fascinating and vivid detail.
The film follows four persistent late night snackers on a revealing and often upsetting journey of discovery.
Along the way each gets to confront the reality of their own night-time actions for the first time by watching this ultra-rare footage of themselves in action.
They also learn in detail about their strange medical conditions and discover some of the treatment options available. Whether any find a definite cure, however, remains to be seen.