Babies and toddlers who get too little sleep are at a significant risk of becoming overweight, according to a new study published Monday. A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School found in their study that infants who sleep an average of less than 12 hours a day may have an increased risk of being overweight in early childhood.

Researchers, who reported their findings Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, also found that infants who watch television for more than two hours have a 16% chance of becoming overweight.

To reach their findings, the team of researchers, headed by Dr. Elsie Taveras, assistant professor in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, looked at the sleeping habits of 915 children.

In order to record the sleep habit of children, researchers first asked mothers to fill out the questionnaires, asking about the average number of hours their children watched television or videos and how many hours their children slept at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years. They also measured the children's length and weight at each visit up to three years of age.

After thoroughly analyzing the recorded data, Taveras and her team found that 586 of the children slept an average of 12 or more hours a day, while 329 slept less than that amount of time.

Among the long sleepers, 7 percent were obese at 3, while 12 percent of the short sleepers became obese by that age. And, 17 percent of those who slept less than 12 hours a day and watched TV for two or more hours per day were obese by age 3. The risk for those who got more sleep and watched less TV was 1%.

“Mounting research suggests that decreased sleep time may be more hazardous to our health than we imagined. We are now learning that those hazardous effects are true even for young infants,” Dr. Taveras said.

“Getting enough sleep is becoming more and more difficult with TV, internet and video games in the rooms where children sleep. Our findings suggest that parents may wish to employ proven sleep hygiene techniques, such as removing TVs from bedrooms, to improve sleep quality and perhaps sleep duration,” she added.

This is the first study investigating the link between sleep duration and overweight in infants. Earlier studies have shown this link in older children, adolescents and adults, suggesting that lack of sleep may increase the risk of weight problems, as it stimulates hormones that influence appetite, consequently leading those children to eat more.

The study cautioned that more than a third of children aged under four have a TV in their bedroom and they spend more and more time in front of TV sets. Experts have warned that one third of youngsters will be clinically obese by 2050 unless action is taken.