Besides healthy eating and exercise, getting enough sleep may also be a key factor in managing weight in children and adolescents, a new study has found.The findings showed that children and adolescents who get less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age are at a higher risk of gaining more weight.

Overall, they were 58 per cent more likely to become overweight or obese -- a common risk factor for various cardio-metabolic diseases.


"Being overweight can lead to cardiovascular disease and Type-2-diabetes which is also on the increase in children. The findings of the study indicate that sleep may be an important potentially modifiable risk factor (or marker) of future obesity," said Michelle Miller, from the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK.

For the study, published in the journal Sleep, the team reviewed the results of 42 population studies of infants, children and adolescents aged zero to 18 years which included a total of 75,499 participants.

"The results showed a consistent relationship across all ages indicating that the increased risk is present in both younger and older children," Miller said.

The prevalence of obesity has increased world-wide and the World Health Organisation has now declared it a global epidemic.

According to the recent recommendations by US-based National Sleep Foundation infants (four to 11 months) must get between 12-15 hours of nightly sleep, toddlers (one-two years) must sleep for 11-14 hours.

Children in pre-school (three-five years) should sleep for 10-13 hours, while school aged children (six-13 years) must get between nine and 11 hours of sleep. Teenagers (14-17 years) are advised to get eight-10 hours.

Prioritizing other commitments over your required dose of slumber, thinking you can catch up on sleep later? Think again. Sleep-deprivation is a long term condition of not having enough sleep, which in acute levels can further lead to various health hazards. Health issues may include high-stress levels, decreased metabolism, heart and kidney issues and a lack of general well-being. Medical experts have time and again the importance of an eight hour sleep, but the appeal seems to be falling on deaf ears, as a significant lot of the present generation is battling with sleep deprivation. And if the findings of a new study is to be believed, this deprivation could even cost them their lives!

The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, reveals that, failing to sleep for less than six hours may nearly double the risk of death in people with metabolic syndrome - a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

The study further revealed that people with metabolic syndrome who slept for more than six hours were about 1.49 times more likely to die of stroke. In contrast, those not able to get six hours of sleep were about 2.1 times more likely to die of heart disease or stroke.

The short sleepers with metabolic syndrome were also 1.99 times more likely to die from any cause compared to those without metabolic syndrome.

The Lead author Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania said, "If you have several heart disease risk factors, taking care of your sleep and consulting with a clinician if you have insufficient sleep is important if you want to lower your risk of death from heart disease or stroke,"

As part of the study, researchers selected 1,344 adults (average age 49 years, 42 per cent male) who were made to spend one night in a sleep laboratory. On basis of the results the team concluded, that 39.2 per cent of the participants had at least three of the risk factors - body mass index (BMI) higher than 30 and elevated total cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar and triglyceride levels. And during an average follow-up of 16.6 years, 22 per cent of the participants died.

On importance of future studies in the area, Fernandez-Mendoza said, "Future clinical trials are needed to determine whether lengthening sleep, in combination with lowering blood pressure and glucose, improves the prognosis of people with the metabolic syndrome."

Melatonin is a hormone known to promote sleep but ever wondered how? Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have discovered how melatonin suppresses neurons in the brain that keeps you awake and alert.

These findings could lead to new therapies for those who suffer from insomnia. “We as a society are losing sleep because we are working too hard, and it’s causing a variety of health concerns,” said Mahesh Thakkar, lead author of the study.

“We often don’t even think about sleep or consider it important. However, there is nothing more important than sleep. We need to focus on therapies that can help you have quality sleep, not just sleep.” Using a mouse model, Thakkar’s research found that melatonin infused in the brain at dark -- when the mice are awake and active -- increased sleep and reduced wakefulness by suppressing specific neurons that stimulate the brain to wake up.

Thakkar also discovered that blocking melatonin receptors in the brain at bedtime significantly increased wakefulness. The experiments singled out one receptor, MT1, as the mechanism via which melatonin acts to inhibit the specific orexin neurons that wake you up. This discovery could help lead to medications that target only the MT1 receptor instead of multiple receptors, which could lead to fewer side effects for those who take sleep-promoting drugs.

“Melatonin has been used as a sleep drug for many years, but people didn’t know how it worked,” Thakkar said. “Our research suggests that if you target the melatonin MT1 receptor, you will get the most sleep with minimal side effects.” The study appears in the Journal of Pineal Research.

If you want to remember your dreams, taking vitamin B6 supplements before going to bed may help, suggests new research from University of Adelaide in Australia. “Our results show that taking vitamin B6 improved people’s ability to recall dreams compared to a placebo,” said study co-author Denholm Aspy from the University’s School of Psychology. The study, published online in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, included 100 participants from around Australia taking high-dose vitamin B6 supplements before going to bed for five consecutive days. “Vitamin B6 did not affect the vividness, bizarreness or colour of their dreams, and did not affect other aspects of their sleep patterns,” Aspy said.

“This is the first time that such a study into the effects of vitamin B6 and other B vitamins on dreams has been carried out on a large and diverse group of people,” Aspy added. The participants in the study took 240mg of vitamin B6 immediately before bed. Prior to taking the supplements, many of the participants rarely remembered their dreams, but they reported improvements by the end of the study. “It seems as time went on my dreams were clearer and clearer and easier to remember. I also did not lose fragments as the day went on,” said one of the participants after completing the study.

Vitamin B6 occurs naturally in various foods, including whole grain cereals, legumes, fruits (such as banana and avocado), vegetables (such as spinach and potato), milk, cheese, eggs, red meat, liver, and fish. Emphasising the importance of using dreaming time more productively, the researchers said that the average person spends around six years of their lives dreaming. “If we are able to become lucid and control our dreams, we can then use our dreaming time more productively,” Aspy said. Lucid dreaming, where you know that you are dreaming while the dream is still happening, has many potential benefits.

“For example, it may be possible to use lucid dreaming for overcoming nightmares, treating phobias, creative problem solving, refining motor skills and even helping with rehabilitation from physical trauma,” Aspy added. “In order to have lucid dreams it is very important to first be able to recall dreams on a regular basis. This study suggests that vitamin B6 may be one way to help people have lucid dreams,” Aspy added.

Children who get less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age are at a higher risk of developing obesity, a study has found. Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK found that children and adolescents who regularly sleep less than others of the same age gain more weight when they grow older and are more likely to become overweight or obese. “Being overweight can lead to cardiovascular disease and type-2-diabetes which is also on the increase in children. The findings of the study indicate that sleep may be an important potentially modifiable risk factor (or marker) of future obesity,” said Michelle Miller, from Warwick Medical School. The study published in the journal Sleep reviewed the results of 42 population studies of infants, children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years which included a total of 75,499 participants.

Their average sleep duration was assessed through a variety of methods, from questionnaires to wearable technology. The participants were grouped into two classifications: short sleeper and regular sleepers. Short sleepers were defined as having less sleep than the reference category for their age. This was based on the most recent guidelines in the US which recommends that infants (4 to 11 months) get between 12-15 hours of nightly sleep, that toddlers (1-2 years) get 11-14 hours of sleep, children in pre-school (3-5 years) get 10-13 hours and school aged children (6-13 years) between 9 and 11 hours. Teenagers (14-17 years) are advised to get 8-10 hours.

Participants were followed up for a median period of three years and changes in BMI and incidences of overweight and/or obesity were recorded over time. At all ages short sleepers gained more weight and overall were 58 per cent more likely to become overweight or obese. “The results showed a consistent relationship across all ages indicating that the increased risk is present in both younger and older children. The study also reinforces the concept that sleep deprivation is an important risk factor for obesity, detectable very early on in life,” said Miller. “By appraising world literature we were able to demonstrate that, despite some variation between studies, there is a strikingly consistent overall prospective association between short sleep and obesity,” said Francesco Cappuccio from University of Warwick.

“This study builds on our previous analysis of cross-sectional data published in 2008. The importance of the latest approach is that only prospective longitudinal studies were included, demonstrating that short sleep precedes the development of obesity in later years, strongly suggesting causality,” said Cappuccio.