Answer To Your Fitness Questions" />Less Sleep While Your Young Could Result In Higher Risk For Obesity
April 8, 2008
Dr Elsie M. Taveras, An assistant professor at Harvard Medical School stated, “The combination of Too little sleep and too much TV is associated with markedly elevated risk of obesity.”
Data was collected from 915 different children in which their mothers reported the child’s sleep habits for the first two years of their life. From this information, researchers were able to estimate about how much sleep the infants had each day between 6 months and 2 years of age.
Findings showed that on average infants slept 12.3 hours a day. Of the 915 children evaluated, 83 were overweight. The researchers found that those 3 year olds who slept less that 12 hours a day as infants weighed more for their age and sex compared to those that were not over weight.
Television also contributed to the obesity factor. Babies who watched two or more hours of television per day had an increased risk of 16 percent to be overweight, compared to a 1 percent risk for those infants who didn’t watch TV.
“The combination of low sleep and high TV might be acting independently to be a higher risk for obesity,” Taveras said.
This study demonstrates the importance of parents understanding the risk factors associated with infants level of sleep and TV watching.
SOURCES: Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of ambulatory care and prevention, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Ann Halbower, M.D., medical director, Pediatric Sleep Disorders Program, Johns Hopkins University Children’s Center, Baltimore; April 2008, Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
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