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Obesity and Sleep

16 replies

figroll · 19/10/2006 12:17

Apparently if your kids go to bed too late, they are going to be fatter. I just wondered what everyone thought.

My two go to bed quite early:

11 year old - 8.30, read and then lights out at 9
14 year old - 9.30, read and then lights out at about 9.45ish.

I don't know if this is early, but I don't think it is excessively late. They are both very thin.

Me? I go to bed about 10.45 - lights out at 11. I only wish that I was as thin as my children!

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Tutter · 19/10/2006 12:18

when i saw this on tv this morning my immediate reaction was: that's why i can't lose that extra stone - it's because i have an hour's less sleep every night now!

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Callisto · 19/10/2006 12:22

When I heard this I assumed that children who have late nights have less energy in the day and so do less. Or maybe it is a cultural thing ie parents who feed their children on junk food don't enforce bedtimes either?

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figroll · 19/10/2006 12:25

Possibly, but I think the implication was that by being sleep deprived the children's bodies produced a hormone that made them want to scoff lots of chocs and stuff. Presumably to boost their energy? I can see sense in that. It is like when I have a hangover (rarely these days), I feel like eating lots and lots to raise my blood sugar.

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themoon666 · 19/10/2006 12:31

Figroll... that sounds very likely. I know when I feel sleepy and tired half way through the afternoon, I always get the craving to eat crispy, snacky things.

My DS is 14, is about 5ft 10in and weighs only 8st 5lb. He eats like a horse and goes to bed at about 10.30pm, depending on my nagging.

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Bozza · 19/10/2006 12:34

Yes the hangover analogy sprang to my mind too. However (and I know it is just anecdotal) I know a 6yo who doesn't go to bed until 10.30 and is ultra skinny. My DS is allowed to stay up until 8 on Fridays and Saturdays and this makes him tired!

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Callisto · 19/10/2006 12:35

That makes much more sense than my garbled wonderings (I only caught the headlines this am).

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Callisto · 19/10/2006 12:36

10.30 for a 6yo sounds way too late - must be so tired for school.

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figroll · 19/10/2006 12:37

My dd also told me of a 14 year old who goes to bed at about 11.30(!!!) and is as skinny as a rake. I couldn't cope with that little sleep, but she watches tv in her bed room apparently.

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Bozza · 19/10/2006 12:38

Just turned 6 as well. Apparently she has always been like this and always seems to have loads of energy. But TBH I am glad to see the back of mine at 7.30.

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figroll · 19/10/2006 12:39

I can't understand this either - why would you want your children up half the night. I like a bit of time to myself and dread the time when I can't tell them to b**r off to bed.

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Callisto · 19/10/2006 12:39

Me too - I really appreciate a child-free evening after running around after my dd all day.

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ELF1981 · 19/10/2006 12:40

I dont think it's the time you go to sleep, its how much sleep you have.
It does seems true for people I know though! DH sleeps like a log, as does DD who are both skinny.
My friends dd has various health problems, one of which is that she does not have the hormone that regulates sleep so is up for hours and even on strong medication she does not sleep for longer than about 3-4 hrs a night and she does have weight problems.

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Bozza · 19/10/2006 14:01

But it stands to reason that a 6yo going to bed at 10.30 on a school night can not have as much sleep as my DS who is in bed from 7.30 - 7.

The news report I heard was putting the spin on that the children were not sleeping because they had entertainment equipment (TVs, DVDs, games machines etc) in the bedroom. But I remember the torch and book under the covers so don't think it is strictly electronic stuff.

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Lilymaid · 19/10/2006 14:07

Isn't it part of the whole life style - the obese kids are likely to spend hours on the computer/games console/watching TV in their rooms and snacking (or never having regular meals with parents). No one tells them to go to bed - or enforces a bed time rule - so they are still playing hours later than they should. IMO it often results from parents not being prepared to make the effort e.g having a family meal in the evenings, not giving in to buying unlimited snack foods, not interacting generally with their children.

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notasheep · 19/10/2006 14:11

Bet they dont have any bicycles the lazy wotsits

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figroll · 19/10/2006 14:24

I think, actually, it was described as being a physiological thing, that if you stay up too late and don't get enough sleep your body produces some hormone or other that make you scoff like crazy, (I am very scientific as you can tell)so I think it is more than just the "bad parents make their children eat crap and leave them on playstations all night" argument.

Although I can see a lot of plumpish teenage girls at my dds school, I didn't think that there were an awful lot of fat kids at their primary, yet they kept jeering at my dd for going to bed early. We used to get a lot of "oh I stay up until midnight each night" crap at primary school. We just used to say, yes but look at the binbags under their eyes!