Heaplthy sleep fight against obesity

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep is a basic need of the body. In Europe the duration of sleep for adult person (18-55 years) is 7 hours, but more than third of adults sleep less than 6 hours per night.Several studies have shown an epidemiological association between short sleep duration and high body mass index (BMI) associated with obesity. In case when the sleep time is less than 5 hours at night, the risk of obesity increases by 60%. This impact is much greater than that of food intake or lack of physical activity. Purpose and objectives: We evaluated the correlation between the sleep duration and body mass index, depended of the sex and age. Materials and methods: Survey was attended by 80 people, aged 15-18 years. Volunteers were selected from two high schools: “Gheorghe Asachi” and, “Spiru Haret” Chișinău, Moldova. The questionnaire issued to participants consisted of several parts: name, age, sex, anthropometric data (the waist circumference, height, BMI, sleep time (in hour), the information about food (number o f meals) and health problems, information about the parents of participants (body weight, height. BMI. age). In dependence of the duration of sleeping participants were divided into two groups: group A with sleep duration < 8 hours and group B with sleep duration> 9 hours. Statistical analysis was performed using standard Excel functions. To characterize obesity, body mass index (BMI) which is calculated by dividing weight (in kg) by height (in meters) squared was used. Results: Adolescents included in the study have had a mean age of 16.38± 0.5 years, 33 (41%) boys and 47 (58%) girls. Group A have included 43 (53%) teenagers and group B 19 - (23%) participants. In group A and B. the average age of boys and girls has been comparable. The average sleep duration has been 7.25± 0.78 hours for group A and 10.31 ± 0.99 hours for group B. BMI among boys who sleep less than 8 hours has been greater than in case of the optimal sleep duration more than 9 hours (22.63± 3.59 vs. 20.41 ± 1.29; p = 0.02). We didn't find this difference in case of girls from the studied groups. Conclusion: The anthropometric assessment of adolescents from Chisinau, allowed us to evaluate the correlation between duration of sleeping and body mass index. BMI was higher among boys with sleep duration less than 8 hours.