For health experts, it’s the ultimate mantra: Eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and get your recommended 8 hours of sleep every day for a healthier body.
Now research shows that sleep really does matter–even as early as 16 months old.
The research is reported by the University College London, now published in the health journal The International Journal of Obesity.
“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,” says Dr. Abi Fisher, a researcher from the Health Behavior Research Center at the University College London. “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.”
As it turns out, Fisher’s research shows just that–sleeping less causes babies to consume more calories. On average, babies need more sleep too: Researchers recommend they get anywhere from 12 to 18 hours of sleep per day, much more than the average adult.
However, many adults may not know this, and assume when their baby gets an average of 8 hours of sleep, it’s a good thing.
Unfortunately, that’s definitely not the case.
“The key message here is that shorter sleeping children may prone to consume too many calories,” says Fisher. “Although more research is needed to understand why this might be, it is something parents should be made aware of.”
What Fisher Discovered
Recruiting a group of 16 month old children, Fisher and his colleagues set out to test one hypothesis–if sleeping less caused them to eat more calories, and therefore gain weight. To do so, he examined how much sleep these babies got every night on average and then compared it to the amount of calories they consumed, a measure that helps predict future weight gain.
Unfortunately, the associations were clear right away: Sleeping less caused them to eat more.
According to Fisher’s analysis, those who slept for less than 10 hours a day–two hours less that the minimum recommendation for babies at this age–consumed 10 percent more calories than those who got at least 13 hours of sleep. And that easily translates to more weight gain as they get older, which isn’t always easy to reverse.
With obesity epidemics looming over both the US and UK, it’s clear this is a huge issue.
“When adults don’t get enough sleep they snack more and feed themselves with comfort food.,” says Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum. “It’s slightly different with babies but they become irritable so parents give them more food to soothe them believing it’s an act of love.”
The recommendation here? It’s obvious—you need to get enough sleep every night, regardless of how tired you are. Skimping on sleep can have a devastating impact on your waistline, and it could start as early as 16 months.
Readers: How do you maintain a normal sleep schedule?
Sources:
Shorter Sleepers Are Overeaters – UCL.ac.uk
Children Who Sleep Less Consume More – ScienceWorldReport.com
Toddlers Who Sleep Less Eat More – Telegraph.co.uk
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