An Adequate Amount of Good Quality Sleep Is Important for Optimal Health and Function- Ing throughout Life. Normal Ranges for Sleep

received little attention in community-based studies of children. In addition to the adverse effects of inadequate sleep on mood and cognitive function, several authors have recently demonstrated an association between reduced sleep and obesity in both adults and children.8-12 It is thought that this relationship may be mediated via changes in the levels of some of the neuropeptides that regulate appetite.12 Specifically, sleep restriction leads to increased levels of ghrelin from the stomach and reduced leptin release from adipocytes, changes that stimulate appetite. However, little research has focused on what role environmental or behavioral factors such as daily exercise might play in the relationship between obesity and sleep duration. Our study has gathered detailed daytime activity and sleep data from a large cohort of children recruited at birth. The aims of this study were: (1) to determine sleep duration by objective means and compare that to parent-reported time in bed; (2) to identify the determinants of sleep duration, and; (3) to assess the association between short sleep duration and obesity, cognitive functioning, behavior, activity, and blood pressure. We hypothesised that sleep duration is affected by environmental factors, and that short sleep duration, measured in a child’s home environment, is associated with measurable adverse effects on health (obesity and blood pressure) and well-being (cognition and behavior) compared to children with longer sleep duration. Furthermore inTRodUcTion