I don't think that eating late at night when I was young was due to an eating disorder, I think it was something I did due to a lack of understanding or knowledge of the dangers. I'm currently trying to find a diagnosis for serious health issues I have which I believe were caused by this. But, I can't seem to find any scientific answers as to what the dangers of late night eating really are. I'm 37 now, and the first symptoms I noticed that were a result of my eating habits were when I was 18. These symptoms were reflux ones, but not common ones such as heartburn, they were 'extra-esophageal manifestations' and would come and go until I was 25. At that age I became unwell with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which left me house-bound and eventually bed-bound for a period. A period where I still had no clue about the effects of late night eating. So, not only was I continuing to do so, but in the following years I was then lying down in bed after ALL meals during the day too. Sometimes waking up during the night and wanting a snack because I was too hungry to sleep again, having one and then going immediately back to sleep. This went on until I was 33, when I became severely ill and have been in a bad way since. Does anyone have any personal experience with eating issues like this? All the information I read is in agreement that it's detrimental to your health to do so, but without actually explaining what it can do to you with the exception of weight gain. But, once you get diagnosed with any reflux disorder, you're told of the importance of not eating late meals and raising the head of the bed / not lying in certain positions, because of the damage that reflux can do when you're asleep is far greater. So, Can anyone give me definitive answers as to whether or not having these eating habits has the potential to make someone seriously ill with reflux? Especially if they do it over a period of 15 or so years? Maybe even longer, as I mentioned, I only noticed the first symptoms when I was 18... to experience reflux symptoms of that kind at that age would imply that I had been doing damage for probably quite a while before that. Because my symptoms of reflux are almost all 'extra-esophageal manifestations', nobody wants to treat me for reflux disorders, despite the evidence that is readily available about conditions such as airway reflux and how that can be not only 'silent', but manifest in various ways and locations in the body. So, it's doubly hard to get anyone to believe me when I tell them that I think it's a result of eating habits. I was hesitant to post this in the abdominal section for this reason, but reflux originates from there so it's probably the best bet of where to post.