| In addition to general well being, better classroom behavior, and higher academic test scores, another reason to get your children to bed early comes from researchers at the University of Michigan in the prestigious journal Pediatrics. They found that increased quantities of sleep may lower children’s risk of becoming obese.
The researchers discovered that every additional hour per night a third grader spends sleeping reduces their chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40%. Amazingly, the less sleep they got, the more likely they were to become obese in sixth grade, no matter what the child’s weight was in third grade.
Lack of sleep appears to provide tired children with an excuse to avoid playtime and spend more time on the couch watching TV and munching on junk food. A more scientific explanation may be that less sleep negatively affects two hormones – leptin and ghrelin – that effectively regulate a child’s appetite.
Ideally, the researchers say the minimum amount of sleep for third graders was nine hours and 45 minutes, with more pillow time lowering the risk even more. Of the children who slept 10 to 12 hours a day, about 12% were obese by sixth grade. Whereas, 22% were obese in sixth grade of those who slept less than nine hours a day.
Obviously ample sleep is not the magic potion for preventing childhood obesity, but it may be one more piece of the puzzle - which also includes proper dietary habits, regular physical activity via playtime, and good parental role models. So parents take the TV and video games out of the bedroom, make the room conducive to sleep, and get your children used to an early bedtime schedule. -- PC
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