TEENAGERS who stay up late on a school night are more likely to put on weight, a new study has found.
The time young people go to bed directly impacts their body mass index (BMI), according to research by the University of California and Columbia University.
Teens that went to bed earlier were less likely to put on weight than those who had a late bedtime.
The study of over 3,300 participants found that for every extra hour a teenager stayed awake on a school night, they gained a whopping 2.1 points on the BMI chart.
But the amount of hours’ sleep a teenager got didn’t actually make any difference to their BMI.
Shockingly, the amount of exercise they did and time spent in front of computer and television screens didn’t make a difference to their BMI.
The findings, which were published in the journal Sleep, suggest that bedtimes can have a massive impact on the weight management of teens.
Lauren Asarnow, of the University of California, Berkeley, said:
“These results highlight adolescent bedtimes, not just total sleep time, as a potential target for weight management during the transition to adulthood.”
The study analysed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, tracking the influences and behaviours of a fair sample of U.S. teens.
It focussed on the years from puberty, throughout college and into young adulthood – comparing bedtimes and BMI of participants from 1994-2009.
The subjects, who ranged from 12 to 32, reported their hours of sleep while researchers calculated their BMI based on their height and weight.
Asarnow said the study shows that teenagers who go to bed earlier on school nights will “set their weight on a healthier course as they emerge into adulthood”.
A study of 522 people by UK researchers earlier this year suggested that people who have to lie in at weekends to make up for lack of sleep were more at risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Research has also found that shift work can put previously healthy people into a pre-diabetic state due to putting their body clocks out of sync.
The latest research is published in Sleep’s October issue.
The time young people go to bed directly impacts their body mass index (BMI), according to research by the University of California and Columbia University.
Teens that went to bed earlier were less likely to put on weight than those who had a late bedtime.
The study of over 3,300 participants found that for every extra hour a teenager stayed awake on a school night, they gained a whopping 2.1 points on the BMI chart.
But the amount of hours’ sleep a teenager got didn’t actually make any difference to their BMI.
Shockingly, the amount of exercise they did and time spent in front of computer and television screens didn’t make a difference to their BMI.
The findings, which were published in the journal Sleep, suggest that bedtimes can have a massive impact on the weight management of teens.
Lauren Asarnow, of the University of California, Berkeley, said:
“These results highlight adolescent bedtimes, not just total sleep time, as a potential target for weight management during the transition to adulthood.”
The study analysed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, tracking the influences and behaviours of a fair sample of U.S. teens.
It focussed on the years from puberty, throughout college and into young adulthood – comparing bedtimes and BMI of participants from 1994-2009.
The subjects, who ranged from 12 to 32, reported their hours of sleep while researchers calculated their BMI based on their height and weight.
Asarnow said the study shows that teenagers who go to bed earlier on school nights will “set their weight on a healthier course as they emerge into adulthood”.
A study of 522 people by UK researchers earlier this year suggested that people who have to lie in at weekends to make up for lack of sleep were more at risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Research has also found that shift work can put previously healthy people into a pre-diabetic state due to putting their body clocks out of sync.
The latest research is published in Sleep’s October issue.
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