
Children and teens who go to bed late and wake up late are more likely to be overweight than their peers who go to bed early and rise early, Australian researchers suggest.
For the study, 2,200 Australians aged nine to 16 kept track of their bedtimes, wake times as well as time spent watching TV, playing videogames or using computers. They also wore pedometers to record their physical activity levels, and weights were measured.
When they went to sleep was key to the results.
Those who went to bed late and got up late were 1.5 times more likely to become obese than those who went to bed early and got up early, even when they got the same amount of sleep, Carol Maher, a post-doctoral fellow with the University of South Australia, and her co-authors reported in Saturday's issue of the journal Sleep.
The late-nighters were almost twice as likely to be physically inactive and nearly three times more likely to sit in front of screens for more than guidelines recommend, racking up nearly an hour more of these sedentary activities.
"This study shows that the teenagers that have that pattern of late to bed, late to wake up don't have as good health outcomes," Maher told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The findings contradict opinions that it is normal for teenagers to get into a sleeping pattern of staying up late and sleeping in, or advisable to adjust school times to fit in with a teenager's sleep patterns, she said.
Since the study was observational in design, it is difficult to determine what could be causing the effect, said CBC's medical specialist Dr. Karl Kabasele.
"What's not clear is perhaps maybe it's the kids who like to do exercise who just choose to get up early and go to bed early," Kabasele said. "Kids who stay up late can't really exercise."
we are same..
ReplyDeleteI know it bad habbit,,but I like to stay up late..