The Link Between Sleep and Disordered Eating

Many people who struggle with eating difficulties also struggle with sleep. Sleep problems can come in many forms - restless nights, early waking, or that familiar whirring mind that just won’t switch off. It’s not unusual. Sleep and eating are more connected than we often realise and when one is out of balance, there’s a good chance the other could follow.

Sleep is the body’s natural reset, a time for healing, regulating hormones, and soothing the nervous system. When we’re tired, the parts of the brain that help us make balanced decisions are less active, while the emotional centres become louder. That means we might crave sugar or caffeine for energy, feel more irritable, or experience heightened anxiety about food or body image. Lack of sleep also affects levels of ghrelin and leptin, the hormones that control hunger and fullness, leaving us more likely to feel hungry even when our body doesn’t need more food.

For someone living with disordered eating, this can make recovery feel harder. Exhaustion lowers resilience. It blurs the line between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Late at night, when the world is quiet, self-critical thoughts can feel louder, and urges to restrict, binge or overexercise can grow stronger.

And yet, the relationship works both ways. Disordered eating itself can disrupt sleep. Restriction can leave the body running on adrenaline, making it hard to rest. Bingeing or emotional eating can cause discomfort and guilt that interfere with falling asleep. Even the anxiety of trying to “get it right” around food can keep the nervous system on high alert — exactly the opposite of what the body needs to drift peacefully into sleep.

Calming the nervous system

Improving sleep often begins with soothing the nervous system, helping the body to remember what safety feels like. When we’re anxious or depleted, our body stays in a state of “fight, flight or freeze.” Gentle evening rituals can help signal to the body that it’s time to unwind. These could be warm (not hot) baths, soft lighting, journalling, or a few slow breaths with one hand on the chest and one on the belly.

Mindfulness and relaxation techniques, like progressive muscle relaxation or guided hypnosis, can be deeply restorative. They help re-establish the connection between mind and body, a connection that disordered eating can often fracture. In therapy, clients sometimes describe feeling detached from their body, as if it’s an enemy or something to control. Learning to listen to the body by noticing tension, warmth, or calm can gradually rebuild trust.

The emotional side of rest

Sleep also represents something symbolic in recovery, permission to stop trying so hard. Many people with disordered eating live with relentless inner pressure: to achieve, to be perfect, to manage feelings through control. True rest means letting go of those demands, even for a short while. That’s why bedtime can feel uncomfortable at first. When there is no distraction, old fears or self-criticism can bubble up. But with practice, rest can become a space of nourishment and restoration rather than threat.

It’s often helpful to remind yourself that rest is not laziness, it’s maintenance. The body repairs itself during deep sleep; the mind processes emotion and memory. You deserve rest simply because you exist, not because you’ve “earned” it through productivity or perfect behaviour.

Building small and simple routines

Practical habits make a real difference too. Try keeping regular sleep and waking times, dimming lights an hour before bed, and stepping away from screens or stimulating content. Some people find a warm drink of herbal tea or oat milk calming, while others like a few gentle stretches or reading something soothing.

For those in recovery from restrictive patterns, a light evening snack that balances protein and carbohydrates can help stabilise blood sugar through the night, reducing early waking. Listening to the body’s signals rather than rigid food or sleep rules is key.

It’s not about creating a “perfect bedtime routine.” It’s about creating consistency.

A closing thought

Just as the body cannot live without food, it also cannot heal without sleep. Both are forms of nourishment, one physical, the other emotional.

Recovery doesn’t mean sleeping perfectly or never having restless nights; it means knowing that even sleepless hours don’t define you. They’re just moments in time and can still be restful.

As one of my client once said, “When I started sleeping better, everything felt easier, even the way I spoke to myself.”

How therapy can help

In my own practice, I often weave together approaches such as integrative counselling, hypnotherapy, breathwork, EFT tapping and psychoeducation to support clients who are struggling with both sleep and disordered eating. Each of these tools supports the wider process of self-acceptance, self-worth, self-esteem, self-kindness and self-love, helping clients reconnect with their bodies, find steadiness within, and rediscover the simple nourishment of rest.