why lack of sleep makes kids fat

by Diane Lofshult

Food for Thought:

Researchers know that people who sleep for only a few hours each night are more likely to be obese. But now a new study has shown that those who are sleep deprived during childhood are at significantly higher risk for becoming obese as adults.

Study participants included a cohort of 1,037 boys and girls born between April 1972 and March 1973. Parental reports of bedtimes and rising times at ages 5, 7, 9 and 11 were used to estimate childhood sleep times. The researchers later compared participants’ sleep times to their body mass index (BMI) scores at age 32.

Shorter childhood sleep times were significantly associated with higher adult BMI values, even after adjusting for other potential factors, such as socioeconomic status, parental weight or physical activity/television viewing.

Writing in the November 2008 issue of Pediatrics, the researchers concluded that “these findings suggest that sleep restriction in childhood increases the long-term risk for obesity. Ensuring that children get adequate sleep may be a useful strategy for stemming the current obesity epidemic.”

Lights out, kids!