A new study suggests that parents who sleep well could decrease their child's risk of obesity by promoting healthy sleeping habits.
Barbara Fiese, lead author of the study and director of the University of Illinois' Family Resiliency Center, and her colleagues evaluated the sleeping habits of 337 children, including their parents. The researchers surveyed the participants on factors that could affect the prevalence of obesity, such as adequate number of sleep hours (over seven hours), mealtime routine, TV time of less than two hours a day, and not having a TV in the bedroom.
After careful analysis of the responses, the analysts found that only the number of sleep hours showed a significant contribution on the obesity of the children. Children who slept less than the required hours gained more weight than those who had good sleeping habits.
The researchers compared the parental sleep hours to those of the overweight children for a possible correlation.
"We viewed how long parents slept and how long children slept as part of a household routine and found that they really did go together," Fiese said in a news release.
Fiese explained that these children would often sleep as late as 11 p.m., since most of their parents worked late and considered the late night hours their family time. She recommended parents prioritize sleep, not only because of the obesity risk, but for their children to have more energy to function during the day.
"They described cuddling on the couch, watching television, and the child falling asleep in his parent's arms at 10 or 11 p.m. and being carried to bed. You can understand how it happens, but that's too late for a child who has to get up and go to school the next day," she added.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep is important for children as it directly affects their physical and mental development. Newborns need at least 10.5 hours a day, toddlers need at least 12 hours, preschoolers need at least 11 hours, and at least 10 hours for elementary kids.
Details of the study were published in the journal of Frontiers in Psychology.
