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Did you know that Less Sleep May Expand Kids’ Waistlines? I’ve written before about how lack of sleep affects children and you all know that I’m in favor of getting as much sleep as possible, up to 9.5 hours per night in the winter.

Most promising, these study results show that for every additional hour of sleep in sixth grade, a child was 20 percent less likely to be overweight in sixth grade; every additional hour of sleep in third grade resulted in a 40 percent decrease in the child’s risk of being overweight in sixth grade.
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Short sleep duration alters carbohydrate metabolism, and leads to impaired glucose tolerance, which can affect a person’s weight. Circadian rhythms, too, affect the body’s leptin, glucose and insulin levels.

So it’s not just that people stay up later, so they eat more food, though that is a definite culprit. Lack of sleep is actually detrimental to your metabolism. Here’s how:

Lack of sleep produces Ghrelin which, among other effects, stimulates appetite and creates less leptin which, among other effects, suppresses appetite.

I recall from Lights Out something about lack of sleep bringing serotonin levels down. Low serotonin levels stimulate carb cravings, so you reach for the cookies and ice cream. That may be a bit off, but in general, it’s easy to see that lack of sleep makes you hungry and makes you hungry for the wrong things. I’ve never known anyone that went on a late night binge of broccoli and asparagus.

So umm….yeah, go to bed. And put the kids to bed. After you take the TV and night lights out of their room. It is important not only to get plenty of sleep, but to get that sleep in a dark room. Falling asleep is much easier if the TV and computer are turned off at least a half hour before laying down. Try reading a book.

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