Is your child at risk for obesity? He might be if he sleeps less than ten hours a day. A new study finds that toddlers who stay up at night tend to be heavier than those who manage to sleep thirteen or more hours per day.
The researchers examined more than 2,500 children at the age of 16 months, according to The Telegraph. In the end, they found that the toddlers who received less sleep ate a tenth more calories than children who slept for longer periods of time.
"We know that shorter sleep in early life increases the risk of obesity, so we wanted to understand whether shorter sleeping children consume more calories," said Abi Fisher, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Previous studies in adults and older children have shown that sleep loss causes people to eat more, but in early life parents make most of the decisions about when and how much their children eat, so young children cannot be assumed to show the same patterns."
If children aren't responsible for how much food they eat, though, then how do children who receive less sleep eat more? It's thought that children who sleep less become cranky, and parents try to placate them with food; this, in particular, could explain the results that the researchers found.
"When adults don't get enough sleep they snack more and feed themselves with comfort food," said Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum in an interview with The Telegraph. "It's slightly different with babies, but they become irritable so parents give them more food to soothe them believe it's an act of love."
The findings reveal the importance of sleep in toddlers. More specifically, they show how by giving a child more sleep, their risk of obesity can be lowered. This is crucial when it comes to combating the rates of child obesity.
