Lack of sleep makes kids obese

Are your children going to bed late? If you answer Yes, then you can be sure of your children affected by obesity. More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese. Recent researches have found that every extra hour per night a third grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent. Children at the age group of 8 or 9 years old come under third grade, and children at the age group of 11 to 12 years fall under the sixth grade. Since, the less sleep, the children at the age group of 8 and 9 years old got, the more likely to be obese at the age of 11 to 12 years. The researchers had found out that there is a magic number for the third graders, it was 9 hours and 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that of the this magic number lower the risk of obesity significantly.
Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the "Yin and Yang of appetite regulation", says the endocrinologist EveVan Cauter, of the University of Chicago. In the recent experiments, it was found sleep deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.
Another explanation, to this theory points out that tired kids are less likely to exercise and more likely to sit on the couch and eat cookies. It was also found that children's sleep may disturbed by breathing problems, caused by overweight, such as sleep apnea, and some caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids.
On the research conducted among the children lived in 10 US cities, On an average, the third graders got about 9 hours sleep, but some slept as little as seven hours and others as much as 12 hours. Of the children who slept 10 to 12 hours a day, about 12 percent were obese by sixth grade and 22 per cent were obese in sixth grade of those who slept less than nine hours a day.
The researchers also took into account other risk factors for obesity, such as the children's body mass index in third grade, and still found the link between less sleep in third grade and obesity in sixth grade. They acknowledged that factors they did not account for, such as parents weight or behaviour, may have contributed to the risk.
More over, there are plenty of other reasons for encouraging good sleep habits, such as success in school, Clean thinking and stress free.