Daily HealthBeat Tip - August 28, 2008

Heavy sleepers

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Being overweight may be something that a kid does lose sleep over. A study finds overweight kids sleep less than healthy-weight kids, and spend less time in REM sleep, the stage linked to hunger control and burning more calories.

Erika Forbes of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic measured sleep for three nights by kids ages 7 years to 17 years.

The study found overweight kids slept on average 22 minutes less a night, and had less REM sleep.

Forbes thinks sleep is good for weight control:

``Sleep is part of the picture – but, of course, so is being active and eating healthy food, and we recommend those. And you can’t control the amount of REM you get, but total sleep is important.’’ (9 seconds)

The study supported by the National Institutes of Health was in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 28 2008