Researchers from the United States have found that long sleep and fewer awakenings in newborns are associated with
“While the association between insufficientSleep and weight gain are well established for adults and older children, but the relationship has not been found for infants, ”notes one of the researchers, Susan Redline.
She and her colleagues tracked the health of 298 babies born between 2016 and 2018.
With the help of actigraphs, researchers trackedsleep phases in children for three nights in the first and sixth months of life. At the same time, parents were asked to keep diaries of babies' sleep. The researchers also measured the weight and height of the children, on the basis of which the body mass index was calculated for each. The researchers found that every extra hour of sleep was associated with a 26 percent increased risk of being overweight. In addition, the risk of gaining excess weight was lower in those infants who were less likely to wake up at night.
In addition, the researchers believe that longer sleep in babies leads to better breastfeeding routines - which reduces overeating in babies.
Source: Oxford Academic