Dr Nanna Olsen from the Research Unit for Dietary Studies at the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Copenhagen University Hospitals in Denmark presented new research at the 19th European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France, which reveals that children who come into their parent’s bed during the night are less likely to be overweight than children who do not.

According to research, children that come into their parents’ bed after waking up in the night are linked to short sleep duration and sleep fragmentation. Research has shown that obesity is also linked to a low quality and quantity of sleep, which therefore concludes that children who enter their parents’ bed should theoretically have a higher tendency of becoming overweight or obese.

Children who venture into their parents’ bed at night may also sense a feeling of security due to the positive parental social responses.

The researchers decided to assess whether entering the parents’ bed during the night was linked to becoming overweight amongst 2 to 6 year olds with a high risk of becoming overweight. They used data from the Sund Start study that involved 645 children between the ages of 2 to 6 years who were predisposed to being overweight, due to high birth weight, maternal pre-pregnancy overweight or maternal low socioeconomic status.

The data included BMI measurements of 497 children, as well as complete information on whether the child entered the parents’ bed during night, and if so, how often. They discovered that children that never entered the parents’ bed during night had a risk that was over 3-times higher of being overweight compared to those that did enter their parents’ bed every night.

In a concluding statement Dr Olsen says:

“The results may suggest that elements of parental social support or other types of positive psychosocial responses if being allowed to enter parents’ bed during night may protect against overweight, whereas types of negative psychosocial responses such as feelings of rejection when not being allowed to enter parents’ bed may lead to overweight.”

Written By Petra Rattue