The University of Chicago and the University of Louisville set out to explore the effects of duration and regularity of sleep schedules on BMI and the impact on metabolic regulation in children. What they found was published online at Pediatrics – The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics this week.
The study involved 308 children 4 to 10 years of age were assessed with wrist actigraphs for one week in a cross-sectional study, along with BMI assessment. On average children slept eight hours per night regardless of their weight.
However, obese children tended to sleep for shorter periods of time and with more variability on weekends compared with school days. Obese children are less likely to experience "catch-up" sleep on weekends, and the combination of shorter sleep duration and more-variable sleep patterns was associated with adverse metabolic outcomes.
Educational campaigns, aimed at families, regarding longer and more-regular sleep may promote decreases in obesity rates and may improve metabolic dysfunction trends in school-aged children.
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