Less sleep linked to obesity in children
Source: Agencies |
January 27, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A LACK of shuteye over the weekend could be piling extra weight onto American children, a sixth of whom are already obese, a study said.
The research, published in Pediatrics, followed the sleeping habits of 300 children between four to 10 years of age for a week and found that obese children slept fewer hours, and had more irregular sleep patterns, than their slimmer peers.
"We think the direction of the arrow is you sleep less, you eat more, you exercise less because you're tired, and therefore you gain more weight," said David Gozal from the Corner Children's Hospital and University of Chicago, who led the study.
"Over the last 50 years, we have seen an increase in obesity rates for children, and in parallel there have been decreases in the amount of sleep that children get."
Gozal and his team did acknowledge their study wasn't designed to prove that less weekend slumber packed on the weight, but noted that other animal and human studies show sleep can also influence weight.
To check for links -between increased weight and decreased sleep, researchers had the children wear a small -device that measured their sleep at night.
While children on average got about eight hours of sleep a night regardless of weight, those who were obese got some 20 minutes less on weekends, and it wasn't as regular as among normal-weight children.
"If you sleep little during the week but consistently caught up on it over the weekend, then you reduced your risk of obesity from fourfold to twofold," he said.
Research has not pinpointed how sleep time would influence weight, but appetite hormones, such as ghrelin and leptin, are probably involved.
The research, published in Pediatrics, followed the sleeping habits of 300 children between four to 10 years of age for a week and found that obese children slept fewer hours, and had more irregular sleep patterns, than their slimmer peers.
"We think the direction of the arrow is you sleep less, you eat more, you exercise less because you're tired, and therefore you gain more weight," said David Gozal from the Corner Children's Hospital and University of Chicago, who led the study.
"Over the last 50 years, we have seen an increase in obesity rates for children, and in parallel there have been decreases in the amount of sleep that children get."
Gozal and his team did acknowledge their study wasn't designed to prove that less weekend slumber packed on the weight, but noted that other animal and human studies show sleep can also influence weight.
To check for links -between increased weight and decreased sleep, researchers had the children wear a small -device that measured their sleep at night.
While children on average got about eight hours of sleep a night regardless of weight, those who were obese got some 20 minutes less on weekends, and it wasn't as regular as among normal-weight children.
"If you sleep little during the week but consistently caught up on it over the weekend, then you reduced your risk of obesity from fourfold to twofold," he said.
Research has not pinpointed how sleep time would influence weight, but appetite hormones, such as ghrelin and leptin, are probably involved.
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