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Kids’ Quality Sleep May Prevent Obesity, Diabetes

According to recently released information, the soaring rate of obesity in 6- to 11-year-old American children has tripled in just 30 years.  Alongside that dangerous rise in weight that threatens our nation’s children, a growing number of these children also suffer from chronic sleep deprivation.  The newly released study has found an important link between a child’s weight and his or her ability to get a good night’s rest.

Almost 17% of American adolescents tip the scales at the overweight or obese mark, a situation that puts them at considerable risk of developing life-changing diseases such as type 2 diabetes.  Numerous studies have explored the connection between the caloric intake of the diet as compared to the expenditure of energy that comes with physical exercise.  When these two factors are out of balance, unhealthy issues of weight develop.

Less study has been done, however, on other factors that influence the balance between caloric intake and energy expenditure, including the connection between high body mass index (BMI) and less than optimal sleep time.  Adults and children alike seem to gain weight easier when sleep is troubled or too limited.

To establish a link between quality of sleep and healthy BMI, researchers enlisted the help of 335 children, from seven to 17 years of age, who underwent sleep assessments on three consecutive nights.  Each child’s sleep patterns and sleep duration was measured with a polysomnogram.  Some areas of particular concern included:

• Total time slept throughout the entire night
• Time spent in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep
• How long it takes the individual to fall asleep

According to BMI measurements, 49 study participants (or, 14.6%) were found to be at risk of gaining excess weight.  An additional 45 study participants (13.4%) were already overweight.  When the sleep quality in these children was compared to that of children with a BMI normal for their age, it was discovered that the heavier children missed an average of about 22 minutes of sleep each night.  Other sleep difficulties documented by the polysomnography equipment were:

• Lower sleep efficiency (or the percentage of time a person is in bed but not sleeping)
• Less time in REM
• Less activity of the eyes when REM did occur
• Longer wait after falling asleep for first REM activity to begin.

When children in the study missed out on one less hour of total sleep each night, their risk of being overweight doubled.  When a child experienced one less hour each night of REM sleep, his or her likelihood of being overweight tripled.

Why or how the body works to store excess weight when sleep is chronically deprived is not yet understood but there is evidence that sleep loss interferes with hormonal activities that may influence appetite.  More hours awake also makes for more hours awake to eat.  Sleep deprivation leaves a person very tired the following day, which may lead to less physical activity that would be burning off calories instead of storing them as fat.

These are the findings of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Xianchen Liu, MD, PhD, and leader of this study, which has been published in the August issue of JAMA’s Archives of General Psychiatry.  Liu would like his study to bring to light the significant number of children who are both overweight and chronically sleep deprived.  He expresses the hope that sleep quality interventions can be developed that address the serious consequences to one’s health that a lifestyle of too little sleep can cause.

Source: AMA

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