Lack Of Sleep Can Lead To Obesity; Research Shows

Health experts are alarmed with the increasing number of obese children. They have studied all the causes. Current research shows that kids who sleep less, eat more that can lead to obesity.

A new research shows that kids who skip a daytime nap and sleep late have the tendency to consume more calories. The first study author, Elsa Mullins from University of Colorado, Boulder in the United States said that their findings may shed light on how the lack of sleep can increase weight gain and lead preschoolers to obesity as a child and later on in life. She added that "To our knowledge, this is the first published study to experimentally measure the effects of sleep loss on food consumption in preschool children."

The small study conducted by Elsa Mullins and the team of researchers deprived the kids of roughly three hours of sleep on one day. For instance, they had no afternoon nap and were kept up almost two hours than their usual bedtime routine. Then they get up same time than they are used to for their daily activities.

The researchers found that during the day lost of sleep, the kids with ages three and four eat up about 20 percent more calories than the usual, also 25 percent more sugar intake and 26 percent more carbohydrates. The day after children were allowed to sleep as much as they needed, in a report by NDTV.

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Then kids normal baseline level returned after the recovery day. The sugar levels, sugar consumption, and carbohydrates are back to normal. But, they still consumed 14 percent more calories and 23 percent fat than normal. Lead study author, Monique LeBourgeois, Assistant Professor at CU Boulder, said that "We found that sleep loss, increased the dietary intake of preschoolers on both the day of and the day after restricted sleep," according to Science Daily.