Children Sleeping Less Than Ten Hours Nightly Prone To Obesity
(Undated) -- New research finds that a quarter of children who sleep less than ten hours nightly are overweight by the age of six. Scientists at the University of Montreal have determined that along with being overweight, they can also become hyperactive. A professor of psychiatry and sleep disorders said 26 percent of children between the ages of two and a half and six years of age who sleep less than ten hours every night are overweight. Among kids in that age group who sleep ten hours, the percentage falls to 15 percent and drops even further to ten percent in those that sleep eleven hours.
Researchers explain the relationship between sleep and weight is due to a change in the secretion of hormones stemming from lack of sleep. With less sleep, the stomach secretes more of the hormone that stimulates appetite. There is also less production of the hormone that reduces the intake of food.
On the issue of hyperactivity, 22 percent of children who slept less than ten hours nightly at age two and a half were hyperactive when they were six. A researcher in the study says while lack of sleep translates into sleepiness in adults, it becomes excitement in young children. |