Children who sleep less than 10 hours per day are 2.5 times more likely to be overweight

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Monday, July 19, 2010 8:44 am Email this article
Children who sleep only 10.5 to 11.5 hours per day are 42 percent more likely to be overweight, and those who only get only 8 to 10 hours of sleep per day are 2.5 times more likely (245 percent more likely) to be overweight compared to children who sleep 12 to 13 hours per day according to a study from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. Sleep duration and appetite hormones

Sleep duration affects leptin and grehlin

“[S]leep duration seems to be important in the regulation of body weight and metabolism by the modulation of key hormones such as leptin and ghrelin,” the paper notes.

 

Independent Risk Factor

Lack of sleep independent risk factor for obesity

“[T]he effect of sleeping hours on overweight/obesity in children appears to be independent of other risk factors,” the paper concluded.

Leptin is a hormone released by fat cells which reduces appetite, whereas grehlin is a hormone that increases appetite.

 

Subjects

Subjects: 422 children

The study involved 211 boys and 211 girls who were in the first, second or fourth grade.

The average age of the children was 6.5 years old.

 

Other Articles

Other articles about the link between sleep and obesity

A recent article found that lack of sleep is associated with higher body weight. It can be found here.

Other articles about the link between lack of sleep and obesity can be found here.

REFERENCE

Chaput J, Brunet M, Tremblay A. Relationship between short sleeping hours and childhood overweight/obesity: Results from the ‘quebec en forme’ project. Int J Obes (Lond). 2006 Jul, 30(7):1080-85.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

Angelo Tremblay
Division of Kinesiology
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
Laval University
Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada G1K 7P4
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Childhood Obesity

• Sleep