A British woman eats 2,500 calories a night in her sleep. Lesley Cusack, 55, from Cheshire, diets during the day because she can't control what she eats while asleep at night, often consuming 2,500 calories. She can "only tell by the remains in the morning. I tend to find opened tins of things or packets and I've no idea whether I've eaten some of them cold or not. Sometimes I've found soup in pans, but also in bowls - it all can get rather messy," she said.

Cusack has suffered from Sleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) for several years. She has tried numerous solutions, such as putting alarms on my doors in the hope it will wake me up. It doesn't work though. I simply turn it off in my sleep....I'm trying lose weight but it's a constant battle. I can follow a diet to the letter but it goes to pot at night," she said. Still, she finds herself waking up to realize she has eaten 2,500 calories a night or more.

She has also eaten non-food items, listing "emulsion paint, Vaseline, cough syrup, raw potatoes and soap powder". She added, "The night I ate paint was the only time I've ever woken up. I can still remember standing in the kitchen touching my mouth and being very confused. It took me a while to work out what it was. It was thick and horrible."

"My bedding and night clothes are constantly getting stained and need washing. I'm always finding a trail of food leading downstairs into the kitchen and sometimes the lounge."

A doctor confirms that it is certainly possible to eat 2,500 calories a night. Dr Paul Reading, Consultant Neurologist at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, and President of the British Sleep Society, defined Cummings' possible condition, saying: "Benign sleep walking is a common phenomenon in childhood which usually disappears during early adolescence.

"However, around one percent of adults will continue to exhibit complex activities (parasomnias) that arise from the deepest stages of sleep shortly after dropping off. Recollection of any behaviours the next morning is invariably absent or, at best, vague.

"A proportion of adult sleep-walkers will eat and even cook during apparent sleep, often consuming foods they would not normally enjoy. Weight gain and guilt are common consequences."

For Lesley Cusack, the issue has worsened with time. "At first, it wasn't too much of an issue and I vaguely remember having night terrors, where I would wake up and freeze then shoot out of the room only being stopped by my husband at the time," Cusack said. At one time, she "didn't realize it was me," but when she realized it was, she felt "embarrassed and guilty".

She has piled on the pounds over the years, but feels as if she didn't have a choice because she was not conscious while doing so. Cusack is afraid of people's reactions, saying, "Having no control made me feel as if everyone assumed I ate too much out of choice and often I would eat less when in people's company in the hope that they wouldn't judge me."

Amongst her family, her condition has "become a bit of a standing joke now," but that "there were times when I felt extremely depressed trying to hide it."