Exercise improves overweight kids' sleep

AUGUSTA, Ga., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Aerobic exercising during the day may reduce snoring at night for children who are overweight, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia say.

Researchers at the Augusta, Ga., school studied 100 overweight children aged 7 to 11. About 25 percent either snored or had other sleep-related breathing problems, according to surveys completed by the children's parents, WebMd.com said. The researchers divided the children into three groups, two with assigned daily exercise levels and one in which the children continued their usual activities.

When surveyed again, children in the two exercise groups shows a greater drop in snoring and sleep-related breathing problems than children not assigned to exercise. Both exercise groups showed a similar drop in snoring, researchers said.

Children who exercised a minimum of 40 minutes a day also showed the biggest overall improvement in sleep-related breathing problems, researchers said.

The study "adds to the knowledge base about the benefits of physical activity on overweight children's health, even when weight loss does not occur," the researchers said in an article published in Obesity's November edition.

Sleep Well For A Trimmer You!

A decent night's sleep curbs the number of pounds women put on as they age, according to a finding by a team of U.S researchers led by an Indian-American doctor.

In a study that followed more than 68,000 US women for 16 years, the team headed by Dr Sanjay Patel of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland found that women who slept more each night tended to put on less weight during middle age.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and presented earlier this year at a medical conference.

The researchers found that women who typically clocked five hours of sleep were one third more likely to have substantial weight gain than those who slept for seven hours.

A key finding by the team also said that putting an extra 10 pounds doubles a woman's risk of diabetes.

According to Patel, there are several possible explanations for the findings. It could be that sleep deprivation causes the body to metabolise calories less efficiently. It may also be that a lower number of hours spent sleeping reflects a basic life change that can have a fairly dramatic impact, reported the Health on the net foundation.

Whatever the reasons, sleeping seven hours or more each night could help prevent women from gaining that extra pound, say authors of the study.

The researchers based their findings on data from the long-running Nurses' Health Study, which has followed the health of thousands of female nurses for the past 30 years.