Effect of catch-up sleep on obesity in Korean adolescents: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Youngha Choi; Sujin Kim; Myeongseob Lee; Hae In Lee; Kyungchul Song; Junghwan Suh; Hyun Wook Chae; Ho-Seong Kim; Ahreum Kwon

doi:10.3389/fped.2023.1213558

Effect of catch-up sleep on obesity in Korean adolescents: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Front Pediatr. 2023 Jul 26:11:1213558. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1213558. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Youngha Choi¹, Sujin Kim², Myeongseob Lee², Hae In Lee³, Kyungchul Song², Junghwan Suh², Hyun Wook Chae², Ho-Seong Kim², Ahreum Kwon²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Kangwon National University Hospital, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Pediatrics, Severance Children's Hospital, Institute of Endocrinology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Pediatrics, CHA Gangnam Medical Center, CHA University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: Adolescents have weekday/weekend sleep discrepancies and may compensate for weekday sleep debt through sleep extension on weekends.

Objective: We investigated the effects of total sleep duration on weekdays/weekends on obesity and determined if weekend catch-up sleep has an ameliorating effect on obesity in Korean adolescents.

Methods: Using data from the KNHANES VII, 1,306 middle and high school students were assessed for total sleep duration on weekdays, weekends, and the entire week, as well as weekend sleep extension. Participants were classified into four groups according to weekend sleep extension.

Results: Total sleep duration and weekend sleep duration were negatively associated with body mass index z-score. Increased weekend sleep duration and sleep extension on weekends decreased the relative risk of overweight/obesity with each 30 min increment, reducing the risk by a factor of 0.39 and 0.93, respectively. The risk of overweight/obesity in adolescents who slept less than 6 h on weekdays increased by a factor of 1.93 when they slept for less than 3 h on weekends.

Conclusion: Weekend catch-up sleep had a negative dose-dependent association with obesity in Korean adolescents. Sleeping longer on weekends may be associated with a decreased risk of obesity, even if the adolescent obtains less sleep during weekdays. However, further prospective studies are needed to establish the causality between extended weekend sleep and obesity.

Keywords: adolescents; catch-up sleep; obesity; overweight; sleep deprivation; sleep duration.