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Sedentary Behavior Associated with Delayed Sleep Onset in Kids
The more sedentary that children are during the day, the longer it takes them to fall asleep at night, according to a population-based study in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
More than 500 7-year-olds in New Zealand wore an actigraph around their waist for 24 hours to measure physical activity during the day and sleep behaviors at night. Overall, the more activity children got, the faster they fell asleep. And for each hour spent in sedentary activity during the day, it took 3 minutes longer to fall asleep at night.
The authors say their findings underscore "the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for promoting good sleep."
[Editor's note: Although Archives of Diseases of Childhood has released this article from embargo, it has not posted the article on its website. Rather than delay coverage further while awaiting that posting, we have provided a link to the journal's online-first page, where the article will eventually appear.]
LINK(S):
Archives of Disease in Childhood online-first page (Free)
Published in Physician's First Watch July 23, 2009
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