Background Children with dyslipidemia may lead to early onset atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and even life-threatening. However, few studies have determined the characteristics of dyslipidemia among children and adolescents in Zhejiang Province, and few studies have investigated the correlations of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and diet as well as sleep time. Methods This study included children and adolescents aged 6–17 years who participated in provincial nutrition surveillance, which was including 90 counties (cities and districts) in Zhejiang Province with provincial representative. Food consumption was assessed using three consecutive days of 24-h dietary recall. Blood sample were collected to detect the concentration of TG, TC, HDL-C, and LDL-C. Results The prevalence of elevated TG, elevated TC, low HDL-C, elevated LDL-C and dyslipidemia was 17.1%, 10.1%, 5.5%, 4.0% and 23% among children and adolescents aged 6–17 years, respectively. TG was negatively correlated with egg intake and sleep time of study days(Spearman’s rho=-0.125, -0.057, P < 0.001). TC was positively correlated with livestock and poultry meat intake and egg intake, but negaviley correlated to legume intake (Spearman’s rho = 0.077, 0.093 and − 0.162, P < 0.001). HDL-C was positively correlated with egg intake, sleep time of study days, and sleep time of rest days, but negaviley correlated to legume intake (Spearman’s rho = 0.108, 0.065, 0.082 and − 0.119, P < 0.001). LDL-C was positively correlated with livestock and poultry meat intake and dairy intake, but negatively correlated to legume intake (Spearman’s rho = 0.131, 0.11, and − 0.118, P < 0.001). There were significant difference of TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and dyslipidemia prevalence among children with or without obesity/overweight(chiquare = 46.309, 9.836, 54.99, 30.436, and 56.631, P < 0.001). Ordinal regression shows that the gender, agegroup, Obesity/Overweight, Sleep time of study days(h) > = 8 were associated with critical /abnormal TG(χ2 = 541.619, p < 0.001). Conclusions The prevalence of dyslipidemia was high among children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with obesity/overweight and with short sleep time were associated with dyslipidemia .