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Lack of Sleep and Too Much Television Makes for Overweight Toddlers

April 14, 2008 – A study released by Harvard Medical School in April indicated that getting too little sleep and too much time in front of the television may be making fat toddlers.
Children up to age three need about 12 hours of sleep each day. If a toddler does not get enough sleep, they are twice as likely to be overweight by the age of three than those children who get enough sleep. When excessive television watching is added to that sleep deprivation, the toddlers have a 16% chance of being overweight.
The study was conducted by identifying 915 mother-infant pairs from Project Viva, a long-term study of the effects of diet and other factors on maternal and child health over time. The measurements and weights of the infants were taken on several visits up to the child’s age of 3 years. Mothers reported how many hours per day their child slept at three ages – 6 months, 1 year and 2-years postpartum. Along with the measurements and weights taken, the parents were also asked to report the average number of hours the children spent watching television both during the week and the weekends.
The combination of excessive television viewing and a lack of sleep coincided with a markedly higher body mass index (BMI) which increases odds of becoming overweight.
Matthew Gillman, Harvard Medical School associate professor and director of the Obesity Prevention Program in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention says “ Although previous studies have shown a similar link between sleep restriction and overweight in older children, adolescents and adults, this the first study to examine the connection in very young children.”
The results of this study were published in the April 2008 issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/
(Michelle Uhri)