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‘Children who sleep less more likely to be obese’

Bangalore: The lack of sleep might be known better as an adult malady, the affliction of the overworked professional. But, it now appears that children are not shielded from this lifestyle malaise – and it is beginning to tell on their health.

Children who get less than eight and a half hours of sleep at night are six times more likely to be obese, reveals a research study by doctors at the St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences (SJNAHS), published recently in the International Nutrition Journal.

In fact, shortened sleep, it was found, poses twice the risk of childhood obesity than does eating fried food six times a week.

The Insomnia Awareness Week begins on Tuesday, and coincides with Sleep Awareness Month.

In this study, 598 urban and semi-urban children aged between 6 and 16, visiting St. John’s Medical College Hospital for routine checkups, were studied for their sleep duration, eating patterns, physical activity and sedentary habits, to understand the causes of childhood obesity.

“One of the possible explanations for the association between overweight and sleep could be that the two hormones – ghrelin (which signals appetite) and leptin (which indicates satiety) – are thrown into imbalance when sleep is not adequate. When the level of these hormones is modulated, it could increase appetite and weight gain,” says Anura V. Kurpad, Dean, St. John’s Research Institute and co-author of the paper.

Children should be encouraged to sleep for at least nine hours a day, suggests the paper which was published in September 2007 and co-authored also by Swarnarekha Bhat, Rebecca Kuriyan, Tinku Thomas and Mario Vaz of SJNAHS.

There has been an observable change in the lifestyle of children, who now face multiple demands, many of which cut into their sleep time, says Dr. Bhat, who is Head of the Department Paediatrics and Neonatology St. John’s Medical College, SJNAHS.

“There is the pressure of studies, the long travel time to school, and the influence of their parents’ lifestyle and routine, all of which inevitably impact on them,” she points out.

There are also some sedentary activities like computer games and television watching, which often take place at a time when children should be asleep, according to Dr. Bhat.

Watching television had an independent impact on obesity, the study found: children who watched television for an hour and a half or more were 19 times more likely to be overweight than those who watched TV for 45 minutes or less.

The other “behavioural modifications” to prevent childhood obesity includes reducing television viewing to one to one-and-a-half hours a day, and the limiting of fried and high fat foods to two or three times a week.

“But this study throws up more questions than answers. We need a bigger study to understand the social determinants of why children sleep less, and the activities that cut into the child’s sleeping time,” says Dr. Kurpad.

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