Children Who Don't Get Enough Sleep at Risk for Obesity

According to Professor Ed Mitchell and his colleagues at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, children who do not get enough sleep are risk for becoming obese. The researchers, who published the results of their study in Journal Sleep, believe that lack of adequate sleep causes hormonal changes in the stomach and in fat cells that increase the appetite.

Mitchell asserts that even when other factors are accounted for, lack of sleep has a major effect on a predisposition toward obesity: "Our results show a strong effect of short sleep duration on risk of obesity even when levels of daytime activity are adjusted for."

Researchers studied more than 500 seven year old children from Auckland using a device called an actigraph. Children who slept for an average of nine hours or less per night were more than 3 times more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers who slept for more than 9 hours.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine offers the following tips for parents to help their children get the sleep they need:

• Establish and follow a consistent bedtime routine
• Create a relaxing bedroom environment
• Spend time with children before bedtime
• Do not allow children to watch movies or television shows, or play video games, that are not age appropriate
• Avoid giving children foods or beverages that contain caffeine
• Avoid giving children medications that contain stimulants at bedtime