According to new research regularly getting a good night's sleep as a child may help protect adults from becoming obese.
New Zealand researchers have found in a study which followed more than 1,000 children born in Dunedin between 1972 and 1973, that those who had too little sleep as children were more likely to become obese adults.
Dr. Robert John Hancox, the study's senior author, says even when a range of other factors such as childhood weight, TV habits, and adulthood exercise levels, were taken into account, a link remained between sleep deprivation during childhood and obesity later in life.
Dr. Hancox says although this cause-and-effect relationship cannot be proven, the study provides strong evidence to support the theory that early sleep habits have a direct effect on weight in the long term.
Dr. Hancox and his colleagues at the University of Otago in Dunedin, say a number of studies have found that sleep-deprived adults and children are at greater risk of being overweight but theirs is the first to confirm that short sleep during childhood could have long-term implications for adult obesity.
The study involved 1,037 men and women who had been followed since their birth up to the age of 32 - their parents reported on their usual bed time and wake-up time when the participants were 5, 7, 9 and 11 years old and the researchers say as childhood sleep time declined, adulthood body mass index, or BMI, climbed.
They found that adults who had been "short sleepers" as children - averaging fewer than 11 hours in bed each night - generally had a higher BMI than those who'd had more sleep as children.