Sleep deprived children likely to grow obese, study
Posted on: 27/Sep/2017 2:28:48 PM
It is likely that children who are sleep deprived will tend to overweigh and turn obese as compared to their counterparts who get enough sleep, says a recent study.
The study involved over 368 children weighing normal aging between 2 and 6 who were prone to become overweight, as all of them were high in birth weight, and they had heavy parents or they belonged to lower income category.
In the beginning of the study, the sleep diaries of these participating children were recorded for about 7 days period. The total time period of rest they enjoyed were recorded, and they observed whether these children took naps, whether they slept throughout the day time, or found troubles in falling asleep at night, or wake up in between during night sleep, or had any other kind of sleeping troubles. Their parents also had complaints about the food diaries of children.
It was found that children who had the least period of night sleep were prone to overweight issues in the following 1.3 years. Further, those children who overweigh were also likely to show interest towards eating more of sugary foods and beverages.
Speaking about this, the lead author of the study, Anna Rangan of the University of Sydney said those children who had the utmost level of sleep variability consumed too much of added sugars and sugary drinks, but their consumption of fruits and veggies is poor as compared to children with very low sleep variability.
On the other hand, children who enjoyed good sleep duration and better sleeping patterns were observed with better dietary quality as compared to the others who had tough sleep routines.
There are a number of other sleep related researches where effects of insufficient sleep in children as well as adults are studies. However, very less is observed in case of toddler or young children.
