Children between the ages of 3 and 5 who go to bed around 8 p.m. are less likely to be obese when they grow older than those who go to bed later. This is one of the main conclusions of a large study coordinated by epidemiologist Sarah Anderson of Ohio State University, which has observed the physiological changes experienced by 977 minors over eleven years , until they reached the age of 15.
Anderson and his colleagues found that only one in ten children who went to bed early became obese . This proportion increased to 16% in the group of those who went to sleep between 8 and 9 and rose even more, to 23%, among the children who did so later than that time.
The experts discovered that the relationship between being overweight and hours of sleep was maintained regardless of the emotional family environment, an issue that affects many routines at home, such as precisely when to go to bed, or even more or less bonding. affective that children maintained with their mothers.
According to these scientists in the journal The Journal of Pediatrics , they have focused on bedtime because it affects the quantity and quality of sleep of minors to a greater extent than the one to which they get up that, in addition, parents have less control. In this sense, other trials had already determined that young children are biologically “preprogrammed” to feel the need to sleep before 9 pm .
Now, Anderson and his team point out that it is necessary to analyze how this phenomenon is interrelated with other habits that are traditionally linked to weight gain, such as lack of exercise or an inadequate diet.
Image: The Ohio State University
