VOA慢速英语2016 良好睡眠有助降低儿童肥胖风险（在线收听）

Early Bedtime for Young Children Could Cut Obesity Risk 良好睡眠有助降低儿童肥胖风险

For VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

美国之音英语学习，这是健康和生活方式的报道。

Getting a good night's sleep tonight could guard children against weight gain in the future.

今晚拥有一个良好的睡眠可以防止儿童未来体重的增加。

According to a new study, putting preschoolers in bed by 8 p.m. could reduce their chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life by half. Preschoolers are children around the age of 4 or 5.

根据一项新的研究，学龄前儿童晚上8点上床睡觉，可以使他们在以后的生活中变得超重或肥胖的几率减半。学龄前儿童是指4或5岁左右的孩子。

The term ‘obese' refers to calculations of your Body Mass Index, what doctors call BMI. They use a person's height, weight and age to assess their amount of body fat. BMIs help tell whether a person is underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

术语“肥胖”使用来衡量你的身体质量指数，即医生所说的BMI。他们用一个人的身高、体重和年龄来评估他们体内的脂肪量。BMI指数帮助分辨一个人体重是过轻、正常、超重或肥胖。

The World Health Organization says obesity can lead to serious long-term health problems like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

世界卫生组织称肥胖可以导致严重的长期的健康问题，比如糖尿病,心脏病和中风。

Researchers from the Ohio State University's College of Public Health have found that young children who go to bed after 9 p.m. are twice as likely to be obese later in life. The researchers wrote their findings in The Journal of Pediatrics.

俄亥俄州立大学公共卫生学院的研究人员发现，9点后睡觉的孩子在以后肥胖的几率是其他孩子的两倍。研究人员把他们的研究结果发布在《儿科》杂志上。

The lead author of the study is Sarah Anderson. She is an associate professor of epidemiology. She studies how diseases spread and how they can be controlled. Anderson says that, for parents, the results of the study support the importance of creating a bedtime routine.

该研究的第一作者是莎拉·安德森。她是流行病学副教授。她研究疾病如何传播和他们如何可以控制。安德森说，对于父母来说，这项研究的结果显示了固定就寝时间的重要性。

She says that having a usual bedtime routine is something “families can do to lower their child's risk” of becoming overweight.

她说有一个固定的就寝时间是家庭可以做到的能降低孩子肥胖的风险的事情。

A usual, early bedtime, Anderson adds, “is also likely to have positive benefits on behavior and on social, emotional and cognitive development."

往常一样，早睡觉，安德森补充说，“也可能会对行为举止和社会、情感和认知发展产生积极而有益的影响。”

Researchers used data from 977 children for the study. These children are part of a larger project called the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The project follows healthy babies born in 1991 in 10 U.S. cities.

研究人员使用来自977名儿童的数据。这些孩子是一个被称为早期儿童保育和青年发展研究的更大的项目的一部分。项目跟踪1991年出生于10个美国城市的健康的宝宝。

The children were 4 ? years old when their mothers reported their usual weekday bedtime. Researchers then divided the children into three groups:

孩子们4岁的时候，母亲睡觉报告他们平常的睡觉时间。然后研究人员将孩子们分成三组:

those who went to bed by 8 p.m. or earlier,

8点或更早上床睡觉的孩子，

those who went to bed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and

睡觉在晚上8点和9点之间的孩子，

those whose bedtimes were after 9 p.m.

就寝时间是在9点后的孩子。

When these children turned 15 years old, the researchers looked at their rates of obesity. Of those with the earliest bedtimes, only one out of 10 was obese. Of those who went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m., 16 percent became obese. And out of those with the latest bedtimes, 23 percent became obese.

当这些孩子15岁时，研究人员观察了他们的肥胖率。在最早就寝的孩子中，10个人中只有一个是肥胖的。上床睡觉时间在8点到9点之间的孩子，16%的人变得肥胖。那些最晚上床睡觉的孩子，23%变得肥胖。

Anderson said putting children in bed early does not mean they will immediately fall asleep. But, she adds, it makes it "more likely that children will get the amount of sleep they need to be at their best.”

安德森说让孩子早睡并不意味着他们会立即入睡。但她补充说，这是使得孩子们更有可能得到他们需要的最好的睡眠时间。

But Anderson says it is important to understand that having early bedtimes may be harder for some families than others. She says that, “families have many competing demands and there are trade-offs that get made.” For example, she says, if some parents work late, that can push the children's bedtimes to later in the evening.

但安德森说，重要的是要理解对一些家庭来说早点睡觉可能比其他家庭更困难。她说，“家庭有许多竞争需求，有取舍。”举个例子，她说，如果有些父母工作到很晚，这回使得儿童在晚上很晚才睡觉。

Is childhood obesity a worldwide problem?

儿童肥胖症是一个全球的问题吗?

Obesity among children in the United States is a major health concern. About 17 percent of children and teenagers in the U.S. are considered obese. That is according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

儿童肥胖率在美国是一个主要的健康问题。在美国约有17%的儿童和青少年被认为是肥胖的。这是疾病控制和预防中心提出的。

The World Health Organization reported in 2014 that the number of overweight babies and young children worldwide had increased from 31 million in 1990 to 44 million in 2012. If that trend continues, the WHO warns, there will be 70 million obese children in the world by 2025.

世界卫生组织报道，2014年全球超重婴儿和年幼孩子的数量已经从1990年的3100万人增加到2012年的4400万人。如果这一趋势持续下去，世界卫生组织警告说，2025年世界上将会有7000万肥胖儿童。

Words in This Story

preschool - n. a school for very young children

obese - adj. fat in a way that is unhealthy

assess - v. to make a judgment about (something)

epidemiology - n. the study of how disease spreads and can be controlled

routine - n. a regular way of doing things in a particular order

cognitive - adj. of, relating to, or involving conscious mental activities

data - n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something

trade-off - n. a situation in which you must choose between or balance two things that are opposite or cannot be had at the same time

trend - n. a general direction of change