According to the Herald Sun, a study indicates children who do not get enough sleep are close to two and a half times more likely to be obese.
They are also almost twice as likely to be overweight than those who get 10 or more hours sleep a night, the Deakin University research found.
Current recommendations say children aged five to 12 should get between nine and 12 hours sleep a night, but Australian children’s sleep has been declining by around 30 minutes a night since the mid- 1980s.
Researchers, led by Bridget Morrissey, found 33 per cent of Victorian children surveyed receive less than 10 hours sleep per night.
Forty per cent of these insufficient sleepers were found to be overweight (25 per cent) or obese (15 per cent). This compares to the 25 per cent of children with sufficient sleep who were found to be overweight or obese.
