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Shorter sleep duration affects food responsiveness in children
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Children aged 5 years who are considered short sleepers are more likely to have an increased food response vs. children who sleep an adequate length of time, according to research in the International Journal of Obesity.
Laura McDonald, MSc, BSc, a PhD student in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, and colleagues analyzed data from 1,008 children (51% girls) participating in Gemini, a U.K. cohort of twins born between March and December 2007. One child from each twin pair was randomly selected for analysis; sleep and appetite information was provided by parents at age 5 years. Researchers calculated sleep duration in children using parent-reported bedtime and wake time; sleep was categorized as either short (less than 11 hours), adequate (11 to 12 hours) or long (more than 12 hours), based on age-specific reference values. Researchers used the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire to assess food response. BMI measurements were available for 494 children; children with complete data had mothers who were more likely to be college educated and white.
The average nighttime sleep duration in the cohort was 11.48 hours; average food response score was 2.84; average satiety response score was 2.38. Researchers found that shorter sleep was associated with a higher food response at age 5 years (P = .032); the association persisted after adjustment for age, sex, birth weight, maternal education and BMI. There was no association found between nighttime sleep and satiety response, a measure of homeostatic eating.
Among children in which BMI data were available, researchers found an association between BMI and shorter sleep at age 5 years (P = .026). The association was borderline after adding food response to the model (P = .049), suggesting partial mediation, according to researchers.
“These findings support experimental work in adults, which has suggested that acute sleep deprivation influences ‘hedonic’ rather than ‘homeostatic’ pathways to food consumption,” the researchers wrote. “The results are also similar to one previous pediatric study, which found that shorter sleep was associated with higher external eating but not with emotional or restrained eating.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Jean-Philippe Chaput, PhD
With sleep and food response, we know a lot about adults; we know much less about teenagers and children. In very young children, at [age] 5 years, there is only one other study showing a similar result, so this is new. The study shows that short sleepers are more overweight and obese, and that the main explanation is through an increase in food intake. But, eating is very complex. You can eat because your desire to eat is increased, but it doesn’t mean it’s because you’re hungry. With sleep, we know with studies in adults, we tend, after a lack of sleep, to crave more energy-dense foods — foods high in fat, high in sugar. We don’t crave fruits and vegetables, and for different reasons. We need glucose for our brain because we’re awake for more hours. But for children at 5 years old, this is pretty young, so if we’re finding the same pattern that we see in adults, this seems, for me, to be a very robust finding. We find it in young kids, teenagers and adults and older adults, so this is very strong.
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