US research published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics andAdolescent Medicine found that children who slept less than 12 hours aday in the first two years of life were more likely to be overweight atthe age of three.
Parents of 950 children recorded the number of hours they slept during24 hours and researchers took children's length or height and weightmeasurements when they were six months, one year and two years old.
Parents were asked how much active play the children took part in onaverage during the week and at weekends, at age two. They also reportedthe number of hours in the past month that children had watchedtelevision or videos.
At the age of three, 83 children (9 per cent) in the group wereoverweight. After factors such as maternal education, income,pre-pregnancy BMI, breastfeeding duration, ethnicity, infant's birthweight, television viewing and active play were taken into account,infants who slept less than 12 hours a day had a higher BMI score andhigher risk of overweight.
The researchers acknowledge that the link between television viewing andchildhood overweight is well documented. 'We found that the combinationof low sleep duration and high television viewing duration predicted thegreatest odds of overweight. Our findings lend support to childhoodoverweight-prevention interventions that target both reduction intelevision viewing and ensuring adequate sleep duration.'
- Further information
'Short Sleep Duration in Infancy and Risk of Childhood Overweight' isavailable at http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/162/4/305.