KIDS who are tucked up in bed by 8pm are far less likely to become obese than those who stay at late, new research has revealed.
While tots with bedtimes after 9pm were TWICE as likely to pile on the pounds as they became teens, according to The Ohio State University College of Public Health.
According to the latest figures, almost one in five (19 per cent) of year 6 kids in the UK are currently classed as obese – with a third being classed as overweight or above.
The study, published in The Journal of Paediatrics, used data from 977 people born in 1991 – making them 24 or 25 today.
The kids were all part of the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development – which followed healthy babies born in 10 different hospitals in the US.
Professor Sarah Anderson and her co-authors divided bedtimes for kids into three categories – 8pm or earlier, between 8pm and 9pm, and after 9pm.
Half of the kids fell into the middle category, with around a quarter of them either going to bed early or staying up late.
The kids were around 4 ½ years old when their mums listed their normal weekly bedtime and, because the study was done in America, they would not yet have started school.
The researchers linked the bedtimes to obesity as teens, at around 15 years old.
They found a stark difference – only one in ten of the kids with the earliest bedtimes were obese as teens, compared to 16 per cent of kids with the mid-range bedtimes, and almost a quarter (23 per cent) of those who went to bed at the later time.
Dr Anderson said: “For parents, this reinforces the importance of establishing a bedtime routine.
“It’s something concrete that families can do to lower their child’s risk and it’s also likely to have positive benefits on behaviour and on social, emotional and cognitive development.”
The researchers also found a link between late bedtimes and less educated mums, lower income households, and ethnic minority families.
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Dr Anderson added: “It’s important to recognize that having an early bedtime may be more challenging for some families than for others.
“Families have many competing demands and there are trade-offs that get made. For example, if you work late, that can push bedtimes later in the evening.”
Previous studies have found links between a lack of sleep and obesity, and late bedtimes and obesity five years on.
It’s also been suggested that young kids are biologically pre-programmed to fall asleep before 9pm.
Dr Anderson and her colleagues focused on bedtimes because parents have more control over these than wake-up times.