US Pharm. 2008;33(4):86.
Research from the University of Auckland in New Zealand revealed a strong correlation between how long children sleep and how much they weigh. According to Gillian M. Nixon, MD, MBChB, and colleagues, young children who sleep less than nine hours a night have triple the risk of being overweight and have about 3% more body fat than children who get nine or more hours of sleep. The findings were published in the journal Sleep.
The study, which involved 519 seven-year-olds, also uncovered that while children who did not get the proper hours of sleep tended to have more mood swings, short sleep duration was not significantly associated with decreased IQ or daytime sleepiness.
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