Consumption of sugary foods and quality of sleep in the first year of life

Data from a birth cohort in northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Objective: to investigate sleep duration (SD), frequency of night awakenings (NA) and consumption of sugary foods in the first year of life and to verify the association between consumption of these foods and poor sleep quality. Methods: the study population consisted of 179 children from a birth cohort in Rio Largo-AL. Mothers were asked about the regular supply of sugary foods (sugar/instant cereal flours with sugar/sweetened drinks/sweets) and sleep was investigated by the translated and validated Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. DS<12h and AN>2 were considered indicators of poor sleep quality. Pearson's chisquare and Fisher's exact tests were used to verify associations between sugary consumption and poor sleep quality at six and 12 months (p<0.05). Results: more than half of the children had SD<1 2h (60.3%) and about ¼ AN>2. Regular consumption of at least one of the sugary categories was verified among 50.6, 91.1 and 100% of children at three, six and 12 months of age, respectively. No associations were found between the consumption of these foods and indicators of poor sleep quality. Conclusion: sugary consumption and poor sleep quality were frequent in our study; however, no association was identified between the variables. More investigations are needed to elucidate how sleep and feeding are interrelated and mutually potentiate as determinants of infant growth and development.