Sugapriya G¹
Janani²
Ramachandran C³

¹Assistant Professor,
Department of Physiology,
ESIC Medical College & PGIMSR,
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
²Post Graduate,
Department of Physiology,
³Professor & Head,
Department of Physiology,
SRM Medical College,
Kancheepuram, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

• Introduction: Obesity has become a major health issue in India. It is a condition with excessive fat accumulation in the body to the extent that the health and wellbeing are adversely affected. The healthy BMI range varies with age and sex of the individual. Obesity in children and adolescents is defined as a BMI greater than the 95thpercentile. It can also be defined as a body weight at least 20% higher than a healthy weight for a child of that height or a body fat percentage above 25% in boys or above 32% in girls. There are limited studies related to the pre and post meal sleepiness in obese individuals.
• Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on thirty subjects out of which fifteen were obese and rest were nonobese to measure the sleep latency before and after the influence of standard meal using polysomnography and also to explore the relationship between obesity and subjective measure of sleepiness using Epworth Sleepiness Scale.
• Results and discussion: Statistical analysis was done using student’s ‘t’test. In this study we observed that with increase in BMI there was an increase in both objective and subjective measure of sleepiness. There was no statistical significance in mid sleep latency test after meals between the control group and study group. However, the effects of meal size, various types of food on sleep were not explored in this study.
• Conclusion: The conclusion of this study is treatment should always be focused on the underlying cause promoting appropriate sleep quantity and quality by establishing good sleep hygiene.

Keywords: daytime sleepiness, latency tests, obesity, sleep