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Madison (pte018/31.01.2005/11:00) - Scientists have admitted that the notion that children grow taller while they sleep is probably true. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, researchers at the University of Wisconsin http://www.wisc.edu put sensors in the leg bones of baby lambs and confirmed that most growth spurts occurred when the animals were at rest or sleeping. According to the scientists, the same is true in humans, and this could help explain why some children suffer from growing pains at night.
Bone length was continuously measured by the sensors every 167 seconds for around three weeks. Up to 90 per cent of the bone growth occurred when the lambs were asleep or resting. "What was really interesting was that the bones were growing only when the lambs were lying down, and almost no growth occurs when the lambs are standing or moving around," said Norman Wilsman, one of the researchers. According to the researchers, when the animal is at rest, pressure on the bones involved with growth - the growth plates - is eased, which allows them to elongate. "Growth plates may be springs that, during standing and walking, experience compression and tension. When these strains are eased, as when the animal lies down or goes to sleep, they resume growing," added Wilsman.
The findings were backed by Jeremy Wales, a consultant paediatrician who studied child growth at Sheffield's Children's Hospital. "There have been human studies that also document this. Children do have growth spurts at night," he said. According to Wales, French folk law back in the 1500s claimed that children grew at night.
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