Sleep eats into weight risk
Parents’ bed rules can reduce path to obesity for tots
An extra hour’s sleep each night can slash a preschooler’s risk of obesity, according to Growing Up in New Zealand (Gunz) research. Researchers of our country’s largest longitudinal study of child development have found sleep is crucial to protecting those already “at risk” of becoming overweight.
Countless Kiwi parents wrestle with their children’s sleeping habits each night, and getting preschoolers off to bed, particularly in summer.
The Gunz researchers identified atrisk youngsters using nearly 20 categories, including whether children lived in poverty or were from families experiencing financial stress which could lead to purchasing lowcost but nutrient-poor foods.
Lead author Dr Samantha Marsh, from the University of Auckland’s National Institute for Health Innovation, told the Herald it was already known kids could maintain a healthy body weight despite being exposed to a range of obesity risk factors.
“If we could figure that out, then we could look at ways to help children who may be on a pathway to becoming overweight or obese.”
Childhood obesity remains one of the nation’s biggest public health issues, with one-in-three children aged 2-4 years overweight or obese.
The research found an hour’s extra sleep could slash vulnerable preschoolers’ risk of obesity by 24 per cent. The Sleep Foundation says they typically need 11-13 hours’ sleep.
Top tips to keep tots asleep included maintaining a regular and consistent sleep schedule, a relaxing bedtime routine ending in the room where the child sleeps and a consistent sleeping environment which is cool, quiet and without television.
Marsh said different kids needed different amounts of sleep.
Her research into “body weight resilience” tracked 1400 of the 6000 children in the Gunz study, who fitted the criteria for being at risk on weight.
When these children turned 41⁄ 2, parents were interviewed about “resilience” factors — including family routine, sleep, screen use and the family mealtime environment.
These factors were measured against each child’s body mass index (BMI) and researchers analysed common trends. They found that while less screen time and higher quality family meals were important, nighttime sleep was crucial, Marsh said.
This was significant because it showed families who faced many of the traditional barriers to health could still take action to help keep preschoolers at a healthy weight.
Further research was needed to establish the exact relationship between night-time sleep and family organisation, she said.
For now, Marsh said, it was important to focus on how to build long-term healthy sleep routines in a way that was developmentally safe, culturally appropriate and protected the parentchild relationship.
It is 12 years since the study started with 6000 children, recruited from the Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waikato district health board areas.
Massey University’s Dr Dee Muller’s doctoral research looked at preschoolers’ sleep and found ethnic and socio-economic inequities in kids’ sleep duration. She found Ma¯ori children were at a higher risk of having sleep outside the recommended 10-13 over a day. And socioeconomic deprivation was a significant risk factor in sleep inequality.
“Ma¯ori and Pasifika children and children in more socio-economically deprived environments are at a greater risk of obesity and we see really similar patterns in . . . sleep.”