Children who have regular bedtimes from early childhood are more likely to sustain a healthy body weight in adolescence, according to researchers at Penn State.
The researchers identified groups of children by bedtime and sleep routines and tested longitudinal associations for each group with adolescent body mass index (BMI). Results are published Dec. 4 in the journal SLEEP.
The findings suggest that childhood bedtime and sleep routine groups predict adolescent sleep patterns and BMI.
In a national study of urban households, one-third of children consistently adhered to age-appropriate bedtimes for ages 5 through 9. Those who had no bedtime routine at age 9 had shorter self-reported sleep duration and higher BMI at age 15, when compared to those children with age-appropriate bedtimes (after adjusting for age 3 BMI).
