Parental sleep influences child's sleep, which is connected to child obesity, a new research shows.
Research led by Barbara H. Fiese, director of the University of Illinois' Family Resiliency Center and Pampered Chef Endowed Chair, showed that sleep acts as a protective factor in reducing the incidence of obesity in parents and being overweight in preschool children.
For the study, researchers examined the socio-economic characteristics associated with protective routines and prevalence of being obese or overweight for 337 preschool children and their parents. They assessed adequate sleep (over 7 hours) in parents and family meal-time routine.
The four protective routines assessed in children were adequate sleep (10 or more hours per night), family meal-time routine, limiting screen-viewing time to less than two hours a day and not having a bedroom TV.
The only major individual protective factor against obesity or overweight in children was getting adequate sleep.
Lack of sleep increased obesity risk in children who engaged in at least three of the protective routines regularly, even after controlling parents' BMI and socio-demographic characteristics, Fiese said.
"Parents should make being well rested a family value and a priority," Fiese said in a press release.
"Sleep routines in a family affect all the members of the household, not just children; we know that parents won't get a good night's sleep unless and until their preschool children are sleeping," Fiese said.
The team noted that the number of hours parents slept greatly influenced children's sleep. "We viewed how long parents slept and how long children slept as part of a household routine and found that they really did go together," Fiese said.
The study was co-authored by Blake L Jones of Purdue University and published in the journal 'Frontiers in Psychology'.
