An Overview of Sleep and Obesity in Children and Adolescents
Children across the world are more obese than ever before in history. Children are beginning to manifest weight-associated diseases previously only seen in adulthood. With obese children likely remaining so into adulthood, the implications of childhood obesity are significant and long lasting. This...
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| Language: | en |
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The University of Arizona.
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10150/297535 |
| Summary: | Children across the world are more obese than ever before in history. Children are beginning to manifest weight-associated diseases previously only seen in adulthood. With obese children likely remaining so into adulthood, the implications of childhood obesity are significant and long lasting. This underscores the importance of understanding its development so that it may be reversed. One aspect that has paralleled the rise in obesity is a decline in sleep duration. Epidemiologic studies suggest short sleep might play a role in weight gain and the subsequent the development of obesity among children and adolescents. Sleep deprivation is associated with hormonal alterations that favor appetite stimulation and dysregulation of glucose metabolism. Additionally, decreased physical activity is associated with chronic short sleepers. Through these mechanisms, chronic short sleep may be one aspect of the obesity epidemic that can be targeted. This paper will address the body of evidence regarding the relationship between short sleep and obesity in children and adolescents. |
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