Sleep Deprivation Even Affects Children – Our Tips to Get More Sleep

If, as a recent study suggests, children who don’t get enough sleep have an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), what can parents do about it? As many as one-third of children in the U.S. do not get an adequate amount of sleep, it has been reported. 

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.

Learning to Recognize Symptoms of Stress

The nagging headache starts at the office. You feel tired. You’re having trouble concentrating. Your productivity starts to suffer, and you begin to wonder if you’re coming down with the flu. By the time you get home you’re ready to tuck yourself into bed. The chills and fever never materialize but your symptoms don’t go away.

While persistent headaches, fatigue, frequent forgetfulness and decreased productivity can be signs of illness, stress is often the culprit. Stress can affect your body physically, can impair thoughts and emotions, and can impact behavior.

• Physically, excessive or long-term stress can cause headache, back pain, chest pain, high blood pressure, erratic heart beat, stomach and intestinal problems, and sleep problems. Persistent stress can decrease your immunity to disease and cause heart disease.
• Emotionally, persistent stress can cause anxiety, restlessness, excessive worry, irritability, sadness, anger, feelings of insecurity, inability to concentrate and forgetfulness. Left untreated, stress can lead to serious depression.
• Behavior changes associated with constant stress include overeating or undereating, problems managing and controlling anger, drug or alcohol abuse, increased smoking, social withdrawal, crying spells and relationship conflicts.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms of excessive or chronic stress, it is important to seek medical help. Naturally, a trip to your primary care physician to rule out and address any physical illness that may be responsible for your symptoms is in order. However, if chronic stress is the source of your symptoms, you will have to go beyond your primary care physician to cure what ails you. 

Chronic stress can be treated and overcome and you can learn to live a happier, more balanced, relatively stress-free life. With the help and guidance of a psychiatrist experienced in stress management, you can learn to recognize your personal stressors and how they impact your life and health. Through cognitive-behavioral therapy, an experienced psychiatrist can help you learn to recognize and control your reaction to stress. With expert guidance, you can learn new techniques for responding to stressful situations and people. You don’t have to let control your life. With help, you can learn to control stress and regain control of your life.

Fighting the Out-of-Work Blues

The starting bell in the employment race has always rung in the fall. September has traditionally been the best time to look for a new job. Children start a new school year, freeing parents from daytime childcare duties. Collegiates return to college campuses, leaving stores hunting for replacements. Corporations assess staffing needs as they ramp up new marketing programs. Whether looking for full- or part-time work, most job seekers found success during fall recruitment drives. But that was before the recession and double-digit unemployment.

Today, job searches are taking months instead of weeks. Layoffs have made competition fierce, forcing more and better qualified applicants into the job pool. As job searches lengthen and savings dwindle, anxiety and feelings of desperation set in. Some people frustrated with their inability to find a job that will support them or their family give up and sink into depression.

But the burden is felt not just by job seekers. When layoffs occur, those left on the job often suffer survivor guilt. Those still employed are forced to take on greater work loads, work longer hours and assume greater responsibility, further increasing stress and anxiety. For some, the stress becomes too great. According to the U.S. Labor Department, 251 people committed suicide on the job last year, an increase of 28% over the previous year and the highest number since reporting began.

Losing your job doesn’t have to be a career death knell or plunge you into a pit of despair. Traumatic experiences can be a catalyst for positive change. Psychiatric counseling that focuses on cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you find the silver lining in a layoff or difficult job search. Losing a job can be the impetus you need to abandon a career you don’t enjoy, start a business or go back to school. It can be an opportunity to explore new interests, discover what is most important to you and reinvent yourself in a new career. If you are struggling with a job layoff or searching for a new direction in your life, or if you are feeling depressed and anxious about your job, cognitive-behavioral therapy under the direction of an experienced psychiatrist like Dr. Tracey Marks can provide the support and skills you need to meet life’s challenges successfully.

Most People Choose Sleep Over Sex

We have become so sleep deprived that most people would rather get a good night’s sleep than have sex. In a new survey of 12,500 travelers from a dozen countries, 51% chose sleep over sex. In a similar survey a decade ago, only 31% preferred sleep. Conducted for Westin Hotels & Resorts, the survey echoes numerous scientific studies showing that Americans are running short on sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 30% of Americans report trouble sleeping. Prescriptions for sleep medications have risen 7% over the past two years. According to data from pharmaceutical consultant IMS Health, 56,287,000 prescriptions for sleep aids were dispensed last year.

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.

Working Night Shift Increases Health Risk

With jobs in short supply and bills to pay, more people are working when they used to be sleeping. Some are working a series of part-time jobs that keep them up past their normal bedtimes or working the night shift and struggling to readjust their body clocks. It’s not easy. Shifting your sleep cycle causes metabolic confusion that can lead to serious sleep disorders and increase your risk for certain health problems.

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.

Couch Time Causes Insomnia in Children

Many school-age children experience trouble falling asleep. As many as 16% of parents report having problems getting their children to fall sleep at night. Researchers say the solution could be as simple as getting more physical exercise during the day.

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.

Dreams Help Us Process Emotion

Some people remember their dreams vividly well after they wake up. For others, the tenuous memory of dreams begins to slip away with the first flicker of wakefulness. An inability to remember our dreams does not lessen their impact. New research indicates that a powerful connection exists between our nightly dreams and our ability to process human emotions during the day.

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.

Lack of Sleep Increases Risk of Dying

That sleepless night that makes you grouchy and tired the next day can be a killer — literally. New research shows that getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night increases your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. In a study of 4,600 men and women aged 35 to 55, researchers at University College London and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that women who slept less than 8 hours per night had a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men. Differences in hormone levels may play a role.

According to data recently published in the journal Sleep, women who slept less than 5 hours per night had significantly higher levels of the inflammatory markers that are indicators for heart disease. Compared to women who were able to achieve a full 8 hours of sleep, risk levels increased dramatically with every hour of sleep lost. Even women who received 7 hours of sleep a night showed much higher levels of risk indicators than those who slept 8 hours.

A growing body of research indicates that sleep is a vital component to good physical and mental health. Chronic insomnia is also known to increase anxiety and contribute to depression, particularly in women. Another study reported in Sleep indicates a relationship between postpartum depression and the lack of sleep common to new mothers. In the Norwegian study, 60% of new mothers reported sleep problems with 16.5% showing symptoms of depression.

Researchers found that postpartum depression not only aggravated insomnia, but that complaints about sleep problems often interfered with the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Researchers found that many women who continued to report sleep problems two months after delivery were suffering from postpartum depression. However, because tiredness and lack of sleep are common complaints of new mothers, those suffering from postpartum depression often remained undiagnosed and untreated.

Researchers emphasized the importance of doctors discussing sleep problems with new mothers. Chronic lack of sleep that affects daytime functioning, results in a general lack of energy or that impacts other aspects of a new mother’s life could indicate postpartum depression. Depression screening is recommended to new mothers who continue to experience chronic insomnia. Treatment by a board certified psychiatrist can help women overcome postpartum depression, find solutions to chronic sleep problems, and enjoy their roles as new mothers.

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