New research suggests that you may be able to sleep yourself skinny — at least during infancy.

Infants who get fewer than 12 hours of sleep a night are more likely to be overweight, according to a recent study by researchers at Harvard Medical School.

Twenty-six percent of children between the ages of two and five are overweight or at risk to be overweight, a condition that can cause obesity, asthma or, type 2 diabetes later in life.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is the first to examine sleep patterns in infants, though much work has been done on the effect of sleep on adults.

Studies on adult populations have shown that a lack of sleep is correlated with increased levels of a stomach hormone called ghrelin which can stimulate hunger. …