Sleep pattern regularity and measures of infant weight and length during the first 6 months

Purpose: To examine the association between sleep pattern regularity and measures of weight and length in infants. Design and methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted in a university-affiliated children's hospital in northern Taiwan. A total of 316 healthy infants recruited during their 6-month well-child checkups had their weight and recumbent length measured, and wore an actigraph on the ankle for a week. Based on average weekday, weekend, and all-week sleep durations, infants were categorized into 3 groups: regular sleep, weekend catch-up sleep, and weekend sleep curtailment. General linear model analyses were performed with the 3 sleep regularity groups as the primary predictor variable of interest and infant anthropometry as the dependent variable. Results: At risk of overweight, overweight, and obese was present in a total of 62 (19.6%) infants. In both unadjusted and adjusted models, infants in the weekend catch-up sleep group (30.4%) and those in the weekend sleep curtailment group (34.5%) had significantly higher weight-to-length ratios, body mass index, weight-forage z-scores, and weight velocity of 6-month increments z-scores when compared with infants in the regular sleep group (35.1%, all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Differences inweekday-weekend sleep exist as early as in the first 6 months of life, and both catch-up sleep and sleep curtailment over the weekend is associated with higher measures of weight and length in infants. Practice implications: Sleep assessments in well-child checkups should include not only global assessments of average sleep duration but also address sleep patterns and their regularity. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that differences in weekday-weekend sleep patterns in infants are associated with measures of weight and length, with infants in the weekend catch-up sleep and sleep curtailment groups having higher weight indicators compared to those in the regular sleep group.