Kids under 1 year of age who do not get enough sleep are twice more likely to become
obese and experience weight problems by the time they reach three.
The study in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine concluded that those infants and toddlers who get less than twelve hours of sleep regularly and who watch more than a couple of hours of daily TV, increase their obesity chance by 16%.
The research studied over 900 infants who were measured for weight over a 3 year period. The mothers gave the researchers reports on how much sleep their infants/toddlers got as well as how much television they watched.
Dr. Elsie Taveras of
Harvard medical claims this study proves that a decrease in sleep duration may be worse for our health than ever though before.