Preschool children's eating and sleeping habits: late rising and brunch on weekends is related to several physical and mental symptoms

Objective: As the relationships of sleep-wake schedule and mealtime with children's behaviors have not often been studied together, we investigated the relationships of these lifestyles variables with preschool children's well-being.

Methods: Using a network survey, we investigated several lifestyle variables of 1000 families with preschool children.

Results: Our previous articles reported that preschool children's bedtime was delayed by the compulsory nap routine in Japanese nursery schools. The present study revealed similar results. We conducted a cluster analysis with children's meal and sleep time data, which yielded five different lifestyle groups. Cluster 1 was characterized by "extremely late and irregular" meal and sleep times; similar to Cluster 1, Cluster 2 was a "late and irregular" lifestyle group. Cluster 3 was a "mildly late" lifestyle group. Cluster 4 was an "early bird and regular lifestyle" group, and Cluster 5 resembled the "early bird and regular lifestyle" group on weekdays, but was "late and irregular on weekends." It was found that the later and more irregular the children's meal and sleep times, the worse their physical and mental condition. Even for Cluster 5, the children who had early and regular meal and sleep times on weekdays, getting up and having breakfast late and irregularly on weekends showed worse physical and mental conditions. These problematic symptoms observed in children with late meal and sleep times on weekends might be partly associated with the irregularity of their habits and partly associated with delayed mealtime, especially for breakfast (brunch).

Conclusion: A stable lifestyle, including a regular sleep and wake schedule and mealtime, is important for preschool children's mental and physical health.