Lack of sleep leads to obesity in kids

9 November, 2007

Getting sufficient sleep reduces a child’s risk of becoming obese.

A recent study conducted in the United States has revealed that every additional hour of sleep a night a child gets at the age of 8 or 9 reduces the risk of obesity at the age of 11 or 12 by 40%.

This research adds to an increasing body of evidence that associates a lack of adequate sleep to obesity in both adults and children.

The study conducted by the research team at Michigan University, led by Dr. Julie Lumeng, has been published in the November 2007 edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Dr Lumeng has said children who get more than 9 hours and 45 minutes of sleep considerably lower the chances of obesity in later life.

Around 785 children from 10 cities in the United States were examined by Dr. Julia Lumeng who analyzed the sleep patterns, weight, and height of the children. It was unclear, she added, why the results were so stark, but she said it could be because tired children are less likely to go out and play.

The study took into consideration the child’s original body mass index (BMI), a calculation based on height and weight, and the experiment was controlled accordingly.

However, the researchers did not take into account the parents’ weight and behavior, which may also have an impact on the child.

The study by the University of Michigan team agrees with several others studies which have found that hormonal changes caused by a lack of sleep can result in an increase in appetite.

A research conducted earlier at Bristol University, the United Kingdom, had found that people who habitually slept just 5 hours each night had 15% more ghrelin – a hormone which increases feelings of hunger – than those who slept for 8 hours.

Eve Van Cauter, an endocrinologist at the University of Chicago, the United States, who was not involved in the new research, is of the opinion that lack of sleep can disrupt the production of two hormones involved in regulating appetite. Adults deprived of sufficient sleep produce more ghrelin and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.

Studies had also revealed that those who slept little at night were more likely to eat calorie-rich and starchy food during the day.