Good night's sleep can help mitigate infant obesity risks: Study - Devdiscourse

New research from investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborators suggests that newborns who sleep longer and wake up less throughout the night are less likely to be overweight in infancy.

Researchers extracted three nights' worth of data at the one- and six-month marks while parents kept sleep diaries, recording their children's sleep and wake episodes.

While it's unclear exactly why this correlation exists, scientists speculate that getting more sleep promotes routine feeding practices and self-regulation, factors that mitigate overeating.

In the future, the researchers aim to extend this study to evaluate how sleep patterns impact growth within the first two years of life and identify key factors that mediate the correlation between sleep and weight gain.