Association Between Accelerometer and Parental Reported Weekend and Weekday Sleeping Patterns and Adiposity Among Preschool-Aged Children

Sleep is vital for healthy development of young children; however, it is not understood how the quality and quantity vary between the weekends and weekdays (WE–WD). Research focused on older children has demonstrated that there is significant WE–WD variability and that this is associated with adiposity. It is unclear how this is experienced among preschoolers. This study explored: (a) the accuracy of WE–WD sleep as reported in parental logbooks compared with accelerometers; (b) the difference between WE and WD total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and timing, as assessed by accelerometers; and (c) the association between the variability of these metrics and adiposity. Eighty-seven preschoolers (M = 46; 4.48 ± 0.89 years) wore an accelerometer on their right hip for 7 days. Parents were given logbooks to track “lights out” times (sleep onset) and out of bed time (sleep offset). Compared with accelerometers, parental logbook reports indicated earlier sleep onset and later sleep offset times on both WEs and WDs. Accelerometer-derived total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and onset/offset were not significantly different on the WEs and WDs; however, a sex effect was observed, with males going to bed and waking up earlier than females. Correlation analyses revealed that variability of sleep onset times throughout the week was positively correlated with percentage of fat mass in children. Results suggest that variability of sleep onset may be associated with increased adiposity in preschool children. Additional research with larger and more socioeconomically and racially diverse samples is needed to confirm these findings.