Surprisingly, something as seemingly simple and elemental as sleep can be very complex. We will discuss sleep in more depth in future posts but here are a few simple tips to help parents ensure that children get more of the sleep they need:

• Limit electronic media entertainment before bedtime. Nearly 80 percent of children use television or video viewing as part of their pre-bedtime routine. Sitting still and watching entertainment for half an hour should, theoretically, help a child unwind, as long as it’s not a show or interactive game that generates too much excitement. However, the brightness of the screen undermines any supposed calming effects. The light from a television or computer can delay both the necessary drop in core body temperature and melatonin production—and thus delaying sleep onset—by two hours.

• Keep bedtime consistent. Inconsistent bedtimes are, for all practical purposes, homemade jetlag. Late nights result in the desynchronization of the two systems that regulate sleep, the circadian rhythm and the homeostatic pressure system. Staying up three hours later on weekends is equivalent to flying across three time zones every weekend.

• Avoid over scheduling kids. Overscheduled kids tend to be sleep deprived kids. According to University of Minnesota’s Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom, motivated students can sacrifice sleep to maintain high GPAs, but may pay for success with higher levels of depression and stress. Teens with extracurricular overload are significantly more likely to be involved in a fall-asleep car crash. And high schoolers with part-time jobs both sleep less and have lower grades.

• Common sleep disorders such as nightmares, restless leg syndrome, and frequent night waking can have a negative impact on children’s development—from using drugs at 14 to having clinical-level anxiety as adults. Research by University of Michigan’s Dr. Ronald Chervin suggests as many as 25 percent of kids diagnosed with ADHD have an underlying sleep disorder causing their symptoms. If treated for their sleep disorder, the ADHD symptoms may diminish. Despite the risks posed by sleep disturbances, the number of children treated for them is minimal. Parents should consult a qualified sleep specialist in addition to their pediatrician who may not have expertise in sleep problems.

Chronic insomnia can drive people to take extreme measures in search of relief. Michael Jackson’s death catapulted insomnia into the headlines when investigators discovered he had been using the powerful sedative Diprivan and other drugs to combat sleeplessness. Diprivan may have contributed to Jackson’s death. Drugs alone won’t cure insomnia, experts say.

“Everyone’s instinct is to think this is something I can manage on my own,” sleep researcher Michael Perlis, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, told USA Today in an online article. “The problem is, insomnia is a little bit like a fire. Initially, it’s just a few sparks. Next thing you know, it jumps the fire pit and it’s burning the forest.”

Most people wait too long to treat insomnia. Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to stay physically and mentally healthy. While the occasional sleepless night is normal, sleep experts recommend seeing your doctor if insomnia lasts more than 2 to 3 days. Self-medicating with alcohol or over-the-counter sleeping pills can make the problem worse and can cause dangerous side effects that increase your health risk.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, sometimes augmented by medication, provides the most successful treatment for insomnia, according to a study published in the May issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia should be conducted by a board certified psychiatrist like Dr. Tracey Marks who has expertise in treating insomnia and other sleep disorders. If you are having trouble sleeping, take control of the problem and contact Dr. Marks today.

Every creature has a natural circadian rhythm, the natural ebb and flow of the body’s biological functions over a 24-hour cycle. Humans are programmed to wake when it’s light and sleep when it’s dark. Second and third shift jobs demand that we reprogram our body clocks to work at night and sleep during the day. Unfortunately, grabbing some shuteye when you’re out of synch with the rest of the world can be a challenge. Family demands, caring for young children, doctor appointments and a host of other necessary activities must be dealt with during the hours you now need to sleep. Daylight and noise make falling asleep during the day even more challenging.

What often happens is that instead of getting 8 hours of uninterrupted restful sleep, night workers start losing sleep. They sleep fewer hours overall and get fewer hours of consecutive sleep, decreasing their opportunity to enter crucial REM sleep. It’s not unusual for night shift workers to develop shift work sleep disorder (SWSD). Characterized by continual or recurring sleep interruption, SWSD can result in chronic insomnia or excessive sleepiness. Headaches, lack of energy and difficulty concentrating may also occur.

Individuals who suffer from SWSD are at greater risk for on-the-job accidents, are more vulnerable to illness, may experience increased irritability or moodiness, and are more apt to make errors on the job. Chronic sleep deprivation can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and certain cancers.

To reset their body clocks, late shift workers — and their families — must make sleep a priority. Set and follow a regular sleep schedule, even on weekends and days off. Try to sleep soon after your shift ends. Minimize exposure to light by sleeping in a room with light-blocking curtains or shades. Establish and follow soothing bedtime rituals. Take a warm bath or shower, read or listen to soft music. Strive for 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

The amount of physical activity children receive during the day plays an important role in childhood sleep patterns, according to a study recently published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found that inactivity can lead to insomnia in children. Too many hours on the couch playing video games, watching television shows or movies, even reading made it harder for children to fall asleep and stay asleep. Researchers found that it took children three extra minutes to fall asleep at night for every hour they spent engaged in sedentary activities during the day.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers compared the activity and sleep patterns of over 500 seven-year-olds. It took children from 13 to 42 minutes to fall asleep with 26 minutes being the average. Children who engaged in sedentary pursuits like TV watching and video games during the day took the longest to fall sleep. As physical activity increased, the amount of time it took for children to enter dreamland shortened. Those who were the most physically active during the day fell asleep the fastest and also slept the longest.

“These findings emphasize the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for promoting good sleep,” the researchers concluded.

Researchers found that parents universally overestimated the amount of time their children spent falling asleep. On average it took children 15 minutes longer to fall asleep than parents indicated on study surveys. Television and video games can over-stimulate children, making it harder for them to fall asleep. Limiting such activities in the evening can promote better sleeping habits. But healthy, physical exercise during the day is the key to tiring out energetic youngsters so they can fall asleep at night. Children who get adequate sleep at night (8 to 10 hours) do better in school and are less likely to become obese.

In research presented at the annual conference of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found that people require adequate sleep to understand complex emotions.

“Sleep essentially is resetting the magnetic north of your emotional compass,” Matthew Walker, director of the University of California-Berkeley Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, told Time in an online article.

In the study, adults who took a 60- to 90-minute nap and reached REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the sleep stage where most dreaming occurs, were more likely to identify positive emotions like happiness when looking at photos of other people. Those who did not achieve REM sleep or did not nap more often identified negative emotions like fear and anger.

Our response may be rooted in evolution. In previous research at Harvard Medical School, Walker found that activity in the prefrontal lobe, the brain area that controls emotion, diminished when people were sleep deprived. “If you’re walking through the jungle and you’re tired, it might benefit you more to be hypersensitive to negative things,” he explained. When mental energy lags, self-preservation forces us to focus on immediate threats. When we’re rested, we’re more likely to tune in to positive emotions associated with long-term survival like personal relationships and food.

REM, or dream, sleep “tries to ameliorate the sharp emotional chips and dents that life gives you along the way,” Walker explains. “It’s not that you’ve forgotten. You haven’t. It’s a memory of an emotional episode, but it’s no longer emotional itself. If you don’t let go of the emotion, what results is a constant state of anxiety.”

People who experience insomnia or other sleep disorders that prevent them from entering REM sleep lose the restorative power of sleep necessary to good health. When sleep problems interfere with the mind’s opportunity to process emotions, chronic insomnia can lead to the development of psychiatric disorders.