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Lack of sleep linked to childhood obesity

Infants and preschoolers who don't get enough sleep at night are at high risk for later childhood obesity.

Lack of sleep linked to childhood obesity

Infants and preschoolers who don't get enough sleep at night are at high risk for later childhood obesity.

Obesity has a profound effect on a child's life. Besides increasing the child's risk of several diseases, it also can create emotional and social problems. To examine the association between  short sleep durations and obesity risk, researchers followed 1,930 American children, aged 1 month to 13 years, who were divided into two groups - younger (aged 1 month to 59 months) and older (aged 5 to 13 years). During follow-up, 33 percent of the younger children and 36 percent of the older children were overweight or obese.

It was found that a lack of nighttime sleep among the younger children was associated with a high risk of a shift from normal weight to overweight and from overweight to obesity. Among the older children, the amount of sleep at baseline was not associated with subsequent weight status. It was also found that daytime naps were not an adequate substitute for lost nighttime sleep in terms of preventing obesity.

The study suggests that sleep duration is a modifiable risk factor with potentially important implications for obesity prevention and treatment. There is a critical window prior to age 5 years when nighttime sleep may be important for subsequent obesity status. Insufficient nighttime sleep among infants and preschool-aged children appears to be a lasting risk factor for subsequent obesity.
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