Why babies who miss out on sleep could pile on the pounds

They found youngsters who slept less than 12 hours a day were at double the risk of being overweight by their third birthday than children sleeping longer.

Scroll down for more...

The most likely to gain weight were those who got less sleep and watched high levels of television.

Previous research has identified a link between insufficient sleep in older children and gaining weight in later life, but this is the first study to look at infants and toddlers.

It is thought lack of sleep affects the regulation of hormones governing hunger and energy expenditure, while TV viewing of two hours a day or more has been independently linked with weight gain in children.

In the UK, Government-backed surveys suggest around one in five children is overweight or obese by the age of five.

The latest findings were published yesterday in the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The U.S. team studied 915 infants who were weighed and measured several times up to three years of age.

Mothers reported how many hours their child slept per day on average at six months, one year, and two years.

Parents were also asked to report the average number of hours their children watched TV.

At the age of three years, 89 children in the study - nine per cent - were overweight.

THose getting less than 12 hours sleep were twice as likely to be overweight at the age of three.

Children who slept less than 12 hours a day and watched more than two hours of TV were most at risk of being overweight. The average length of sleep was 12.3 hours.

Elsie Taveras, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School department of ambulatory care and prevention, who led the study, said: "Mounting research suggests that decreased sleep time may be more hazardous to our health than we imagined. We are now learning that those hazardous effects are true even for young infants.

"Our findings lend support to childhood overweight prevention interventions that target both reduction in television viewing and ensuring adequate sleep duration."

Research in the same journal found children who sleep less may be more likely to report symptoms of anxiety, depression and aggression later in life.

The findings were based on research by Dr Alice Gregory of the University of London, and colleagues, who collected sleep data on 2,076 children who were aged four to 16 years old at the beginning of the study.

The children later reported their own emotional and behavioural symptoms at ages 18 to 32.

Those whose parents reported they slept less than others had high scores on scales measuring anxiety, depression and aggressive behaviour.

The authors concluded: "Physicians should inquire about sleep problems during child development and should be aware that some, but perhaps not others, may constitute risk indicators of later difficulties."