Less Sleep + More TV = Overweight Infants and Toddlers

Filed in archive Obesity , Studies , Weight Loss on April 9, 2008

With less than 12 hours of sleep and more TV time in a day predisposes infants and toddlers twice more as likely to become overweight by age 3.





I guess this isn't exactly new, right? At least as far as infants and toddlers are concerned. But not so much of TV time in infants as it is in toddlers.

According to Elsie Taveras, MD, assistant professor in Harvard medical school's Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and lead author on the study:

"Mounting research suggests that decreased sleep time may be more hazardous to our health than we imagined. We are now learning that those hazardous effects are true even for young infants.

Getting enough sleep is becoming more and more difficult with TV, Internet, and video games in the rooms where children sleep.

Our findings suggest that parents may wish to employ proven sleep hygiene techniques, such as removing TV from children's bedrooms, to improve sleep quality and perhaps sleep duration."

So how do you still with this issue in your homes? Are your kids getting enough sleep these days?

Find more details from Harvard Medical School.