研究表明，6岁以下的儿童晚睡与肥胖有关

研究表明，6岁以下的儿童晚睡与肥胖有关

A new study has linked a later bedtime with an increased risk of obesity for kids -- although the researchers say parents shouldn't rush to put their preschoolers to sleep earlier as a result.

一项新的研究发现，晚睡会增加儿童肥胖的风险，尽管研究人员表示，父母不应该因此急于让学龄前儿童早睡。

Instead, concerned moms and dads should focus on maintaininga regular routine when it comes to scheduling meal and bed times, said Dr. Claude Marcus, a professor of pediatrics at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and an author of the study, which published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics.

瑞典卡罗林斯卡学院的儿科学教授克劳德·马库斯博士说，忧心忡忡的父母们在安排吃饭和睡觉时间时，应该把重点放在保持规律的作息上。他也是周二发表在《儿科学》杂志上的这项研究的作者之一。

The research, which was part of a wider study on obesity, focused on 107 children in Sweden, with 64 of the children having a parent who classified as overweight or obese.

这项研究是一项更广泛的肥胖研究的一部分，研究对象是瑞典的107名儿童，其中64名儿童的父母都是超重或肥胖。

The researchers monitored each child's weight, height and waist circumference from ages one to six; all of the children had similar measurements when the study started. Sleep was measured for seven consecutive days once a year for the length of the study by using a tracker worn on the child's wrist.

研究人员监测了每个孩子从1岁到6岁的体重、身高和腰围;当研究开始时，所有的孩子都有相似的测量值。在整个研究过程中，研究人员通过佩戴在孩子手腕上的追踪器，每年一次，连续7天测量孩子的睡眠情况。

They found that children who habitually went to sleep late -- defined by the researchers as past 9 p.m. --had a wider waist and higher BMI (body mass index) by the end of the study.

他们发现，习惯晚睡的儿童(研究人员定义为晚上9点以后)在研究结束时腰围更粗，身体质量指数(BMI)更高。

"This late bedtime was one factor that really stood out. It was associated with increased weight," said Marcus. "However, what we can see is [only]an association. If you put your kids to bed earlier, would it change anything? That's something we don't know."

“这么晚才睡觉是一个非常突出的因素。它与体重增加有关，”马库斯说。“然而，我们看到的只是一种关联。如果你让你的孩子早点睡觉，会有什么改变吗?这是我们不知道的事情。”

Marcus suggested that staying up beyond 9 p.m. could be one sign of an overall lifestyle that puts kids at greater risk of being overweight.

马库斯认为，晚睡超过9点可能是整体生活方式的一个标志，这种生活方式使孩子们面临更大的超重风险。

He noted that kids' bedtimes around the world vary widely -- with kids in places like Spain and some parts of Asia habitually staying up much later than the study's cut-off time.

他指出，世界各地孩子的就寝时间差别很大，西班牙和亚洲部分地区的孩子习惯性地比研究规定的就寝时间晚很多。

"My personal hypothesis is that this is more of a marker of a more irregular life," he said.

“我个人的假设是，这更像是一种不规律生活的标志，”他说。

In a linked commentary on the research, Dr. Nicole Glaser and Dr. Dennis Styne, both pediatric endocrinologists at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, California, said it was possible that obesity and inadequate sleep might be due to other influences, such as "excess screen time, inadequate exercise, or less vigilance overall about health habits."

加州萨克拉门托加州大学戴维斯分校健康中心的儿科内分泌学家妮可·格拉泽博士和丹尼斯·斯泰恩博士在一篇相关的评论文章中说，肥胖和睡眠不足可能是由于其他因素造成的，如“过多的屏幕时间、不充分的运动或对健康习惯的整体警惕性较低”家庭的一部分。”

However, they added that it was possible there could be a physical link. That's because some of the brain regions involved in regulating sleep and wake cycles also manage eating and fasting behavior.

然而，他们补充说，有可能存在物理联系。这是因为大脑中调节睡眠和觉醒周期的一些区域也管理着进食和禁食行为。

"Sleep and body weight regulation are therefore intricately intertwined on multiple levels," wrote Glaser and Styne.

“因此，睡眠和体重调节在多个层面上错综复杂地交织在一起，”格拉泽和斯泰恩写道。

A major limitation of the study was the small number of children involved.

这项研究的一个主要局限是涉及的儿童人数太少。

However, the researchers were able to objectively measure sleep characteristics via the wrist tracker rather than relying on information relayed by parents and children, something Marcus said is often unreliable.

然而，研究人员能够通过手腕追踪器客观地测量睡眠特征，而不是依赖于父母和孩子传递的信息，马库斯说这通常是不可靠的。

Previous research has found that a shorter sleep duration is linked to an increased risk of obesity in childhood. However, the study from Marcus' team found that no matter how long a child slept, going to bed after 9 p.m. was associated with an increased of obesity and a higher BMI.

先前的研究发现，较短的睡眠时间与儿童肥胖风险增加有关。然而，马库斯团队的研究发现，无论孩子睡了多长时间，晚上9点以后睡觉都会增加肥胖和更高的BMI。

While children of overweight or obese parents were more likely to be overweight, the study found that these children did not sleep differently than their peers.

尽管父母超重或肥胖的孩子更有可能超重，但研究发现，这些孩子的睡眠与他们的同龄人没有什么不同。

In adults, Marcus said that irregular sleep and less sleep have been associated with a greater risk of obesity, with some suggestion that people who sleep less eat more.

马库斯说，在成年人中，睡眠不规律和睡眠不足与肥胖的风险更大有关，有些人认为睡眠少的人吃得多。

"The causality is difficult to establish. It could also be an effect of stress, rather than sleep," Marcus said.

“因果关系很难确定。这也可能是压力的结果，而不是睡眠，”马库斯说。

The study said that efforts to prevent obesity should pay more attention to sleep as it appears to be involved in a family's vulnerability to the development of obesity.

该研究称，在预防肥胖的努力中，应该更多地关注睡眠，因为睡眠似乎与一个家庭易患肥胖症有关。