Enhancing Sleep Duration: Effects on Children's Eating and Activity Behaviors

Enhancing Sleep Duration: Effects on Children's Eating and Activity Behaviors

The proposed study aims to determine whether an intervention to increase sleep in school-age children is associated with positive changes in eating, activity behaviors and zBMI. One hundred four children 8-11 years old who sleep 9 ½ hours or less per night will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: 1) optimize sleep (increase TIB by 1 ½ hours/night to produce a change in sleep duration of approximately 40 minutes/night), or 2) control (no change in sleep). Families of children in the optimize sleep group will be taught effective behavioral strategies that have been shown to improve sleep duration. At baseline, 2-week and 2-month follow-up, the following will be gathered: sleep duration (measured by actigraphy), food intake (measured by 3 days of 24-hour recall), activity level (measured by accelerometry), the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food (measured using a validated experimental paradigm), and measured child height and weight.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 8-11 years old
• BMI for age and gender > 10th percentile (but no greater than 100% overweight)
• Sleep 9.5 hours or less nightly
• Attend elementary school
• Like at least 1 food used in the reinforcement paradigm
• Able to understand and complete the reinforcement paradigm

Exclusion Criteria:

• Existence of a diagnosable parasomnia, sleep disordered breathing
• Medical or psychiatric condition that could influence sleep or weight
• Inability to complete study materials, including diagnosed disabilities
• Dietary restrictions/allergies to foods used in the study that preclude them from study participation