Scientists Have Found A Link Between Obesity And Childhood Bedtimes
[Image: Getty]
If you thought that your parents were just packing you off to bed at 8pm every night so that they could watch EastEnders without you chucking Lego at them, think again.
New research from Ohio State University has revealed a link between children’s bedtimes and obesity in later life.
Researchers have been following 977 children born in 1991 over the last 25 years. Results showed that kids who went to bed before 8pm between the ages of three and five were less likely to become obese teenagers. Children who stayed up past nine were twice as likely to become overweight.
Lead author Sarah Anderson said that enforcing a bedtime is “ something concrete that families can do to lower their child’s risk and it’s also likely to have positive benefits on behaviour and on social, emotional and cognitive development”.
[Image: Getty]
The likelihood of a child becoming obese at 15 years old gradually increased the later their childhood bedtime. Ten per cent of kids who went to bed by 8pm were obese, this figure increased to 16% in children who went to sleep between 8pm and 9pm and 23% of children who called it a night after 9pm were obese teens. Seventeen per cent of all US children and teenagers are obese.
Researchers also noted that, in terms of obesity, bedtimes were more important than how long kids slept for or what time they woke up.
See, mum and dad weren’t the soap-opera-obsessed villains you always imagined.
Have We Discovered The Obesity Hormone? And Will Blocking It Keep Us Slim?
A Healthy Diet Is The Key To Tackling Obesity – NOT Exercise, Say Doctors
