Sleep patterns and sugary drink intake in children worldwide
What it found
Children who drank regular soft drinks at least once a day slept about 12 minutes less per night than those who never or rarely drank them.
Children who drank energy or sports drinks went to bed about 25 minutes earlier.
What they found
Studies in people
Sleep duration and soft drinks
Children who reported drinking regular soft drinks at least once a day slept 12 minutes less per night than those who never or rarely drank them. Children who drank soft drinks once a week or more were less likely to sleep the recommended 9 to 11 hours a night.
Bedtime and soft drinks
Children who drank more regular soft drinks tended to go to bed later.
Bedtime and energy drinks
Children who reported drinking energy drinks once a week or more went to bed 25 minutes earlier than those who never drank them.
Bedtime and sports drinks
Children who reported drinking sports drinks 2 to 4 days a week or more went to bed 25 minutes earlier than those who never drank them.
Sleep efficiency
There was no significant link between sleep efficiency and any sugary drink. The authors note that sleep efficiency was very high in this group, which may have made differences hard to spot.
Fruit juice
Children who drank fruit juice once a week or more were more likely to sleep the recommended 9 to 11 hours a night than those who drank it less often.
What the authors conclude
“Shorter sleep duration was associated with higher intake of regular soft drinks, while earlier bedtimes were associated with lower intake of regular soft drinks and higher intake of energy drinks and sports drinks in this international study of children.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say shorter sleep duration was associated with higher intake of regular soft drinks, while earlier bedtimes were associated with lower intake of regular soft drinks and higher intake of energy drinks and sports drinks.
- They call for future work to establish causality and to investigate underlying mechanisms.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see whether sleep patterns are linked to sugary drink intake in children, since sugary drinks are a main source of added sugar in children's diets and short sleep is linked to obesity and other health problems.
They studied 5,873 children aged 9 to 11 from twelve countries across all inhabited continents. Sleep was measured with a waist-worn device for at least three nights, and sugary drink intake was reported in a food questionnaire.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a cross-sectional study, so it can show a link but cannot prove that one thing causes the other.
- The study did not measure how much sugar or energy the children consumed, only how often they drank these beverages.
- The children were all 9 to 11 years old, so the results may not apply to other age groups.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, KH L; 3Pennington Biomedical Research Center, USA; University of Helsinki, Finland
The paper
- Title
- Sleep patterns and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among children from around the world
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Chaput JP, Tremblay MS, Katzmarzyk PT, et al (2018). Sleep patterns and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among children from around the world. Public health nutrition. doi:10.1017/S1368980018000976Free full textPubMed 29681250DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error