Children's Health Children's Nutrition and Fitness

Exercise Reduces Children's Sleep Problems

(HealthCentersOnline) - Sleep disorders are common in overweight children, but exercise often fixes the problem, scientists report.

Sleep disturbances have been linked to children's risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression and other conditions.

Researchers recruited 100 overweight, inactive children ages 7 to 11 to investigate the effect of exercise on metabolism. The children were divided among three groups: no exercise, 20 minutes of exercise daily or 40 minutes daily.

Testing, including a questionnaire given to parents, revealed that one-fourth of the children had sleep-disordered breathing, such as snoring. However, half of the sleep-disordered children who exercised (in after-school playground activities) no longer had sleep problems after about three months. Among those who exercised the most, that figure improved from 50 percent to 80 percent. The exercisers who did not test positive for sleep disorders also showed improvements on the sleep questionnaire.

"Existing data suggests about two percent of children have sleep problems but with 37 percent of children now considered overweight, the percentage may be much higher," lead author Dr. Catherine L. Davis of the Medical College of Georgia stated in a news release. "We believe this study is a red flag to pediatricians to ask parents about their children's snoring. Snoring does not appear to be benign in children."

The study was published in the November issue of Obesity.

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