Children and teens who get less sleep, especially those who spend less time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, may be more likely to be overweight, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Xianchen Liu, MD, PhD and colleagues studied 335 children and adolescents age 7 to 17 years. For three consecutive nights, participants’ sleep was monitored through polysomnography, which assesses total sleep time, time spent in REM, the time it takes to fall asleep and other variables. Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI.

Compared with children at a normal weight, those who were overweight slept about 22 minutes less per night and had lower sleep efficiency (percentage of time in bed that an individual is asleep), shorter REM sleep, less eye activity during REM sleep and a longer wait before the first REM period.

After adjusting for other related factors, one hour less of total sleep was associated with two-fold increased odds of being overweight and one hour less of REM sleep was associated with three-fold increased odds.

“Although the precise mechanisms are currently under investigation, the association between short sleep duration and overweight may be attributed to the interaction of behavioral and biological changes as a result of sleep deprivation,” the authors write.

“Given the fact that the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents continues to increase and chronic sleep insufficiency becomes more prevalent in modern society, family- and school-based sleep interventions that aim to enhance sleep hygiene and increase sleep duration may have important public health implications for the prevention and intervention of obesity and type 2 diabetes in children,” the authors conclude.

Archives of General Psychiatry – August 2008;65:924-932.

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