A recent study reveals that newborns who sleep more and wake up less are less likely to be overweight.

Getting enough sleep at night has long been recommended by scientists as critical to keeping healthy. Few studies, on the other hand, emphasize the importance of getting enough sleep during the first few months of life. According to recent research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and partners, newborns who sleep longer and wake up less during the night are less likely to be overweight as children.

Their findings were published in Sleep.

“While an association between insufficient sleep and weight gain is well-established in adults and older children, this link has not been previously recognized in infants,” highlighted study co-author Susan Redline.

“In this study, we found that not only shorter nighttime sleep, but more sleep awakenings, were associated with a higher likelihood of infants becoming overweight in the first six months of life.”

For this study, Between 2016 and 2018, Redline and colleagues observed 298 infants born at Massachusetts General Hospital. They next tracked their sleep habits with ankle actigraphy trackers, which quantify activity and rest patterns over several days. At one and six months, researchers took three nights’ worth of data while parents kept sleep diaries, charting their children’s sleep and waking occurrences.

Scientists evaluated the height and weight of infants and calculated their BMI to obtain growth data. If an infant’s weight was in the 95th percentile or higher on the World Health Organization’s growth charts, they were considered overweight.

Researchers discovered that only one more hour of sleep was associated with a 26% lower risk of being overweight in babies. Furthermore, infants that woke up less frequently during the night had a lower chance of gaining too much weight. While it’s unknown why this link exists, scientists believe that obtaining more sleep encourages regular meal habits and self-control, both of which help to prevent overeating.

The researchers remark that African American individuals and families with lower socioeconomic categories were underrepresented in their sample. Furthermore, confounding factors such as nursing time may have influenced newborn growth. The researchers hope to expand this research in the future to look at how sleep habits affect growth throughout the first two years of life and to discover important elements that moderate the link between sleep and weight increase. They also want to see how effective programs for developing good sleep patterns are.

“This study underscores the importance of healthy sleep at all ages,” said Redline.

“Parents should consult their pediatricians on the best practices to promote healthy sleep, like keeping consistent sleep schedules, providing a dark and quiet space for sleeping, and avoiding having bottles in bed.”

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