An early bedtime for children helps to keep them healthy

A study of 977 children born in 1991 has found that preschool children who go to bed after 9 p.m. will double the chance of obesity later in life, and suffer negative effects on their social, emotional and cognitive development.  And it has been found that children that children are predisposed to going to sleep before 9PM.

The preschool bedtimes in the study were divided into three categories: after 9 p.m., between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m and 8 p.m. or earlier.  The striking difference was that only 10% of the kids with the earliest bedtimes were obese teens.  And 23% of those who went to bed latest were obese teens.

Of course it is not that simple.  Children also need a predictable and satisfying bedtime routine,  and a sensitive interaction with their parents, all day long and especially at bedtime.  Those children who went to bed latest and whose parents scored lowest on sensitivity, faced the highest likelihood of obesity.

Setting up a bedtime routine will increase the chance that the child will have the right amount of sleep.

The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics (Anderson et al., 2016).