Children with sleep schedule irregularity or shorter sleep duration more prone to obesity

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Dr. Jonathan

Sleep disorders are well known to have metabolic consequences for adults, but what about children? A study just published in the journal Pediatrics suggests that suboptimal sleep timing and duration have adverse effects on the metabolism of children too that promote obesity and metabolic dysfunction. The authors state:

“The goal was to explore the effects of duration and regularity of sleep schedules on BMI [body mass index] and the impact on metabolic regulation in children.”

The examined the sleep patterns of 308 children ages 4 to 10 for associations with BMI; fasting glucose, insulin, lipids (blood fats), and hsCRP (high sensitivity C-reactive protein, a marker for vascular inflammation). Their data support the importance of sleep for the pediatric metabolism:

“For obese children, sleep duration was shorter and showed more variability on weekends, compared with school days. For overweight children, a mixed sleep pattern emerged. The presence of high variance in sleep duration or short sleep duration was more likely associated with altered insulin, low-density lipoprotein, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein plasma levels. Children whose sleep patterns were at the lower end of sleep duration, particularly in the presence of irregular sleep schedules, exhibited the greatest health risk.”

The authors’ conclusion supports a public health effort to reduce obesity and metabolic dysfunction in children by promoting regular sleep schedules:

“…the combination of shorter sleep duration and more-variable sleep patterns was associated with adverse metabolic outcomes. Educational campaigns, aimed at families, regarding longer and more-regular sleep may promote decreases in obesity rates and may improve metabolic dysfunction trends in school-aged children.”

Another biological necessity for sleep indicates a tool for brain health

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Dr. Jonathan

A fascinating study was just published in The Journal of Neuroscience that demonstrates one of the elusive biological necessities for sleep. The authors set the stage by noting:

“Although many theories of function, indirect evidence, and even common sense suggest sleep is needed for an increase in brain energy, brain energy levels have not been directly measured with modern technology.”

They demonstrate for the first time that brains regions active only during the waking state produce a surge in the production of ATP (the body’s cellular ‘energy currency’).

“We here report that ATP levels, the energy currency of brain cells, show a surge in the initial hours of spontaneous sleep in wake-active but not in sleep-active brain regions of rat. The surge is dependent on sleep but not time of day…A significant positive correlation was observed between the surge in ATP and EEG non-rapid eye movement delta activity (0.5–4.5 Hz) during spontaneous sleep…these observations suggest that the surge in ATP occurs when the neuronal activity is reduced, as occurs during sleep.”

This has profound implications for brain health and the capacity for neurons to regulate their threshold of excitability and do neuronal work. Cognition, mood, the subjective experience of energy and fatigue, and every function regulated by the brain depend on the ability of the brain cells to produce ATP. Besides the importance of attaining spontaneous (natural) deep delta wave sleep for ATP production, it also implies that deficiencies of the precursors and cofactors for brain ATP production can be a cause of waking up fatigued and degradation of brain function. This is good news in that we have the resources to restore them.

Another reason to get enough sleep: diabetes

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Dr. Jonathan

Diabetes Care 0210.2 Getting short-changed on sleep causes multiple harms. Here’s a paper just published in the journal Diabetes Care that assessed

“the relationship between habitual sleep disturbances and the incidence of type 2 diabetes.”

The authors analyzed 10 studies that included 107,756 male and female participants. Their clear-cut conclusion:

“Quantity and quality of sleep consistently and significantly predict the risk of the development of type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms underlying this relation may differ between short and long sleepers.”

The mechanisms include hormone dysregulation, low-grade chronic inflammation, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD; see earlier post on how medication can worsen this association). For help with sleep disorders there are sound functional medicine resources that address the biological component, cognitive behavioral methods (see recent post about internet-based CBT for insomnia), and neurotherapies including neurofeedback and brain wave entrainment tools.