In the past, Robbie Williams has struggled with excess. He was admitted into rehab in Wiltshire in 1995 shortly after leaving Take That. Before he managed to sober up, the star took all sorts of substances: cocaine, Adderall, morphine, speed and more. But there was one area of excess that crawled back into his life – overeating. He suggested that a condition called nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder (NS-RED) was to blame for it.
Speaking on his vlog Vloggie in 2017, he revealed that he was unconsciously getting up to go and eat while he was sound asleep.
And he wasn’t consuming vitamins and minerals but rather sugary snacks.
“I’m doing this weird thing, it’s very weird and it has been over a year now, where I night eat.
“Absolutely asleep and I get up and go and eat.
READ MORE: New ‘killer’ cancer treatment stops one third of tumours growing
Aside from increasing the risk of developing type-2 diabetes over time, the condition is an immediate safety hazard as well.
Doctor Dalkilic, a former Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, explained: “People with NS-RED stand the risk of causing injury to themselves as they may swallow non-food items like buttered cigarettes or worse toxic items.
“They may burn themselves while preparing their food, or bump into walls and appliances as they trek to the kitchen.
“Soap may be sliced like cheese or liquid soap may be mixed with chocolate drink.”
The condition, which is more prevalent in women than men, is a type of parasomnia – which consists of a group of unusual behaviours that are done when sleeping.
He explained to the BBC: “I think they are eating to medicate themselves because the eating is very high in carbohydrates, and carbohydrates are likely to increase the serotonin in the brain, and that stimulates sleep.
“I think stress triggers it but you have to have a specific kind of make-up to respond in this way, and I think that’s genetic.”
Williams’ past drug use
In a recent podcast appearance on the Bought the T-Shirt podcast, Williams revealed that he has used painkillers and other drugs in the past to “fill in the blanks”.
He said: “When fame came to me at a very early age, I was 16 when I joined Take That, it magnified all of the negative aspects of who I thought I was.
“I took drugs to become the person that the world was telling me I should be. When really I’m an introvert, and it’s OK to be an introvert.”
