--- title: Sleep-Deprived Infants Grow Up to Be Heavy Kids description: Sleep-deprived babies may grow up to be heavier kids, according to the latest research canonical: https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-19T12:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:54:06.733Z article:section: Health og:title: Baby Won’t Go to Sleep? That May Affect His Weight Later og:description: Sleep-deprived babies may grow up to be heavier kids, according to the latest research og:url: https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaefe09c552c34d1/69868ff33bc999c7b01a3891/84500130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3450 og:image:height: 1941 og:image:alt: 84500130 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Baby Won’t Go to Sleep? That May Affect His Weight Later twitter:description: Sleep-deprived babies may grow up to be heavier kids, according to the latest research twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaefe09c552c34d1/69868ff33bc999c7b01a3891/84500130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poor Sleep Affects Babies' Weight Later In Life > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=929e1f0b-d9b0-482f-8365-25176e8b9bc8&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent May 19, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  11 month old infant standing in crib at night 11 month old infant standing in crib at night Lauren Burke—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent May 19, 2014 12:00 PM UTC Plenty of studies connect poor sleep habits in adults to obesity, but few track the long term effect of infants’ sleep throughout childhood. That’s why Dr. Elsie Taveras, chief of general pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, and her colleagues followed babies every year from 6 months old until they were 7\. At each visit, the team recorded height, weight, body fat, waist and hip circumference and sleep habit information to get the most complete picture yet of how sleep patterns are connected to childhood health. **MORE:** [It’s Time to Pay Attention to Sleep, the New Health Frontier](http://time.com/55390/sleep-is-the-new-health-frontier/) Taveras rated the children’s sleep according to the recommended amounts for their age group set by the National Sleep Foundation and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute—for those under 2, that was more than 12 hours a day; for 3-4 year olds, that was more than 10 hours a day; and for kids 5 to 7, that was more than nine hours daily. At age 7, children with the lowest sleep scores throughout their young lives had the highest rates of obesity and body fat, specifically abdominal fat which other studies have linked to a higher risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. What sets Taveras’ work apart is that it shows how consistently disrupted sleep throughout childhood can have a cumulative effect on health. “This lends more evidence to the fact that insufficient sleep has significant health implications,” she says. **MORE:** [Please, Please Go to Sleep](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2109149,00.html) Consistently skimping on shut-eye, especially at an early age, may interfere with appetite hormones that control how hungry and full we feel. And because sleep is an important time for the body’s metabolism to reset itself, sleep deprivation can also skew the body’s circadian clock, changing the body’s ability to burn calories from the diet and leading to higher blood sugar levels. The findings strengthen what’s known about the importance of sleep in keeping the body’s metabolism running smoothly, but for the youngest children, it also highlights the critical role that parents play in establishing healthy sleep habits. “Household routines, such as bed times and meal times, can be important for getting enough sleep,” says Taveras. “I usually say three things to parents who are worried about their children’s sleep—implement consistent routines around bed times and meal times; reduce the amount of caffeinated beverages they drink during the day; and eliminate high tech distractions from their bedrooms.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/"},"headline":"Poor Sleep Affects Babies' Weight Later In Life","datePublished":"2014-05-19T12:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:54:06.733Z","description":"Sleep-deprived babies may grow up to be heavier kids, according to the latest research","url":"https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/","keywords":["Sleep","Obesity","childhood obesity","sleep deprivation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaefe09c552c34d1/69868ff33bc999c7b01a3891/84500130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaefe09c552c34d1/69868ff33bc999c7b01a3891/84500130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"84500130","caption":"84500130","creditText":"Lauren Burke—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/103550/sleep-deprivation-in-infants-affects-obesity-later-in-life/","name":"Poor Sleep Affects Babies' Weight Later In Life"}}]}] ```