Not being able to get to sleep, or having trouble staying asleep, is the pits. But did you know that if you suffer from insomnia, your children could be at risk for certain serious problems?

In a study presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Professional Sleep Societies, Dr. Xianchen Liu revealed that children of insomniac parents were almost three times more likely to report symptoms of insomnia themselves, more than twice as likely to report fatigue, and more than five times as likely to report using hypnotic drugs compared to adolescents whose parents did not have insomnia.

Even more troubling, almost 17 percent of children with parents who had insomnia reported suicidal ideation (thoughts and behavior), 9.5 percent reported suicide plans, and 9.5 percent reported actual suicide attempts during the past year. This compared to 5.3 percent, 1.5 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, of teens whose parents did not suffer from insomnia.

These statistics are startling, to say the least. Dr. Liu says that by understanding the possible correlations between insomniac parents and certain behaviors and problems with their children, teachers and health care workers can, in theory, proactively work to help children overcome these potential issues.

Posted by Sunshine.

I love the idea of bunk beds. They save space, and give kids a fun way to share a room with a sibling or overnight guest. But with an average of 36,000 bunk bed-related injuries reported each year, it’s worth taking a moment to note the potential dangers with this setup.

The most common mishap, of course, is falling out of the top bunk. Kids and young adults alike (a surprising number of people aged 18-21 were among the injured) can sustain cuts, bruises, and fractures, many of the latter requiring hospitalization, from falls and other accidents involving bunk beds.

So what’s a parent to do?

The authors of the study reporting these statistics recommended the following injury prevention strategies:

* using guardrails on both sides of the upper bunk with guardrail gaps being 3.5 inches or less to prevent entrapment and strangulation;
* checking that the mattress foundation is secure and the mattress is of proper size;
* not allowing children under age 6 to sleep in the top bunk;
* using night lights to help children see in a dark room;
* removing hazardous objects from around the bed; and,
* placing bunk beds safely away from ceiling fans or other ceiling fixtures.

Posted by Sunshine.

Stoopid moms! Two moms, grown women, got into a brawl at a Chuck E Cheeses restaurant. Why? One mom was upset that the other woman’s child was “hogging a game”. Numerous 911 calls to the police were made, and both women are being charged with simple assault and battery. The children were 9 years old, old enough to be totally mortified at their mom’s behavior. Way to go, moms! ..not!

Mommy fatigue causes memory loss. Mommy is sometimes a scatterbrain. At least I am. I am especially horrible with people’s last name - especially at work where I am constantly scanning the phone list to prompt my memory. But, amazingly enough I can usually remember where every single miscellaneous item is in my house for whenever my kids (and husband) whine “moooommm… where is the (fill in the blank)?”

Sleep deprivation, hormone changes and stress can reduce memory. Did you know that a mom loses between 450-700 hours of sleep in baby’s first year alone? I was a walking zombie as well. And I feel for my friends who have older “non-sleepers” that can go on even for a few years. On the positive side, a mother tends to have increased awareness for the health and safety of their child. Some serious nurturing kicks in. So don’t fret if you put that gallon of ice cream in the fridge instead of the freezer… you will still be a great parent to your precious children!

Dying to know if hubby will go bald? Well, a new DNA test is available and for $150, a guy can swab his cheek and send it away for analysis. In return, it will give you decent odds to consider. The big question is, what to do if it does happen? Personally, I prefer a nice sexy shave like Chris Daughtry. What I don’t get is all the guys who are seriously losing it and grow what is left into a looong ponytail hanging down their back. I guess that is our generations answer to the comb-over.

You already know that lack of sleep can affect your child’s performance in school. You know that she’s less emotionally stable when she had a short night’s rest (really, aren’t we all cranky when we’re sleep-deprived?). But did you know that your child is more likely to be overweight or obese by age seven if his average sleep per night is less than nine hours?

Other interesting findings from a new study:

[The children] slept fewer hours on weekend days than on weekdays, in the summer and when bedtime was set as after 9 p.m. They also slept fewer hours if they had no younger siblings. (Really? I would have sworn that my son keeps my daughter awake sometimes…)

In addition to increased weight and body fat, shorter sleep periods correlated with more emotional volatility, reported the research team.

“Sleep is important for health and well-being throughout life,” said lead author Ed Mitchell in a prepared statement.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine agrees. It recommends 11-13 hours of sleep per night for preschool kids, and 10-11 hours once they hit kindergarten. Even my crappy sleeper squeezes in the bare minimum according to these guidelines, and I can definitely tell when she’s short on sleep! Every child’s sleep needs are different from the next, but as a general rule, I think the AASM has it just about right. We already watch our children’s nutrition; sleep is another key element in overall good health.

Thoughts?

Posted by Sunshine.

(Yes, I hear you laughing.)

A new study found that moms who regularly slept for five hours or less when their babies were six months old were much more likely to still be packing the baby pounds when the babies turned a year old. Three times more likely, in fact.

“We’ve known for some time that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population, but this study shows that getting enough sleep — even just two hours more — may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight,” said Erica Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente, which runs hospitals and clinics in California.

Wouldn’t we all sleep more (and better) if we had the opportunity to do so? With a new baby, that’s just not always possible - particularly if there are other children in the household.

At least they thought of that:

“With the results of this study, new mothers must be wondering, ‘How can I get more sleep for both me and my baby?’ Our team is working on new studies to answer this important question,” said Dr. Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

I’m not going to hold my breath on that one, gentlemen.

Posted by Sunshine.

According to new research, children who do not get adequate sleep are more likely to be overweight by middle school. (Say what??) Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child’s chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent. The ideal sleep period for these kids seemed to be about nine hours and 45 minutes.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the “yin and yang of appetite regulation,” said endocrinologist Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

Another explanation: Tired kids are less likely to exercise and more likely to sit on the couch and eat cookies, [Dr. Julie] Lumeng said.

Every child is different, but kids who don’t get enough sleep risk far more than just nodding off in class. Fair enough…but how can parents help their kids sleep better? A related article suggests several tips for parents, including:

Keep electronics (tvs, video games, cell phones, etc.) out of the bedroom.

Don’t let kids sleep too late on the weekend.

Keep a consistent wake-up time during the week.

Have a regular bedtime routine for them.

Posted by Sunshining.

Kids these days are getting less sleep than back when I was little. Surveys show that half of all adolescents sleep fewer than seven hours on weeknights. According to a University of Kentucky study, seniors in high school average slightly more than 6.5 hours of sleep per night. On average, school kids of all ages get about an hour less sleep than children were getting 30 years ago. Even kindergarteners average 30 minutes less shut-eye.

You might think, “Meh. A half hour, an hour. Is it that big a deal?”

Apparently…yes!

Using newly developed technological and statistical tools, sleep scientists have recently been able to isolate and measure the impact of this single lost hour. Because children’s brains are a work-in-progress until the age of 21, and because much of that work is done while a child is asleep, this lost hour appears to have an exponential impact on children that it simply doesn’t have on adults.

The surprise is how much sleep affects academic performance and emotional stability, as well as phenomena that we assumed to be entirely unrelated, such as the international obesity epidemic and the rise of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A few scientists theorize that sleep problems during formative years can cause permanent changes in a child’s brain structure: damage that one can’t sleep off like a hangover. It’s even possible that many of the hallmark characteristics of being a tweener and teen—moodiness, depression, and even binge eating—are actually symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation.

A researcher out of Tel Aviv University took 77 middle schoolers and divided them into two groups. Half were told to go to bed a half hour later for the next three nights, half to go to bed a half hour earlier. They wore wrist devices that measured sleep activity. After three days, a researcher measured the children’s neurobiological functioning.

The effect was indeed measurable—and sizable. The performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. “A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” the researcher noted.

Another study found that sleep problems can cost a child a child up to seven IQ points, posing a threat similar to that of lead poisoning.

A University of Minnesota researcher surveyed 7,000 high school students about their sleep habits and grades.

Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged eleven more minutes than the C’s, and the C’s had ten more minutes than the D’s. Wahlstrom’s data was an almost perfect replication of results from an earlier study of more than 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers by Brown’s Mary Carskadon. Certainly, these are averages, but the consistency of the two studies stands out. Every fifteen minutes counts.

And here’s the study that really made me pay attention:

Convinced by the mountain of studies, a handful of school districts around the nation are starting school later in the morning. The best known of these is in Edina, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where the high school start time was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30. The results were startling. In the year preceding the time change, math and verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of Edina’s students averaged 1288. A year later, the top 10 percent averaged 1500, an increase that couldn’t be attributed to any other variable. “Truly flabbergasting,” said Brian O’Reilly, the College Board’s executive director for SAT Program Relations, on hearing the results.

Sleep deprivation is linked not only with poorer academic performance, but with impaired health overall, and may be a key factor in the rise in childhood obesity. Studies the world over have found that young children who get less than eight hours of sleep have a 300% higher rate of obesity than those who get ten hours.

Why are kids getting less sleep these days? The likely causes are overscheduling, homework, televisions and phones in kids’ bedrooms, lax bedtimes…and parental guilt. Working parents want to spend time with their kids, and that can mean bumping bedtime off just a bit.

Next up: Tips for helping kids sleep.

Posted by MommaSteph.

I love my kids to pieces, but whoever told me that going from 0-1 was harder than from 1-2 was apparently from a planet where babies are born self-sufficient. Having two kids fairly close in age can be tough, even on a good day. Here are my tips for surviving those first few months (geared toward families with an infant and a toddler):

Consider sleeping in shifts. My husband works second shift; he’s rarely home before 2am. My son sometimes screams from 7pm-midnight. Six weeks ago, neither one of us was getting more than three or four hours of sleep, and we were both miserable. (That, and if he pretended not to hear the baby crying at 4am one more time, I was going to invest in a cattle prod and a branding iron!) We sat down and talked about what we could do to maximize sleep for both of us. Now, he takes the baby’s night wakings - I realize this may not work for breastfeeding mothers, although if your baby will take a bottle, you could perhaps pump in advance for overnight feedings) - and I get up at six or so with both kids. He gets up around noon and gives me an hour or two of rest before he leaves for work. We are both much happier!

Housekeeping (or not). With a newborn and another small child to care for, your house probably isn’t your top priority right now. Still, it’s frustrating to deal with a messy living space on top of everything else. You don’t have to spend a ton of time cleaning every day in order to get things looking decent again - take our Martini Challenge, courtesy of the new Domestic Divas board. A ‘Tini Challenge is a mini-cleaning project you can do in fifteen minutes or less, and new challenges are posted daily Monday through Friday.

Let your other child(ren) help. Small children get jealous of their new siblings and have trouble expressing those feelings, so you’re likely to see some acting out from them. That can be hard to deal with when you’re also juggling your newborn’s needs. I’ve found that if I can include my two-year-old daughter in whatever I’m doing with the baby, she’s less likely to pitch fits and is more interested in what we’re doing instead of focusing on the fact that Mommy isn’t playing one-on-one with her. She hands me clean diapers or his bottle (I leave it on her table once I’ve made it and go to pick him up) or a burp cloth, and she loves to choose his clothes.

Nip frustration in the bud. As soon as you feel that “ARGH!” building up inside, take a step back and consider the situation. If you just plain need a break, put the baby and your other child in safe places and take five minutes to regroup. Remember that a little crying won’t hurt anyone (including you - go ahead and let it out if you need to; you’re not alone!), and a quick recharge does a lot of good. If you’re calm, it’s easier to calm everyone else down!

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. This one is twofold. Take people up on offers to watch a kid (or both of them, hallelujah!) for a few hours. More importantly, be aware of your own emotional state. Postpartum depression doesn’t always show up right away, and it doesn’t always manifest itself as sadness, anger, or destructive thoughts (though these are definitely signs, especially when they don’t go away or keep recurring). If you constantly find yourself feeling “blah” or numb/distant, even toward things you normally like, you may have PPD. Ask for help - call your OB. Admitting you need help doesn’t make you a bad mom - just the opposite, in fact! You deserve to enjoy your children’s childhood days as much as they deserve an emotionally healthy mom. (If you are having destructive thoughts - thoughts of harming yourself, your baby, or your other child(ren), please seek help right away!)

This too shall pass! As rough as some of these early days may be, it won’t be like this forever! Try to focus on the positives (your baby’s chubby legs, his first smile - even if it hasn’t happened yet, your older child’s abilities, etc.) and keep in mind that these days are fleeting.

Posted by Sunshining.

That Crucial First Year of School: Research out of the UK looking at the records of over 70,000 children finds that the quality of a child’s first year teacher has lasting implications for the entire primary school experience. This study questions the wisdom of the current practice in the UK of putting the best teachers in later primary grades in order to boost standardized test scores.

Pre-Eclampsia and Vitamin D: According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, early pregnancy vitamin D deficiency is linked with a five-fold increase in the risk of pre-eclampsia. “Our results showed that maternal vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is a strong, independent risk factor for preeclampsia,” said Lisa M. Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and lead author of the study. “Women who developed preeclampsia had vitamin D concentrations that were significantly lower early in pregnancy compared to women whose pregnancies were normal. And even though vitamin D deficiency was common in both groups, the deficiency was more prevalent among those who went on to develop preeclampsia.”

Sorry, Moms: Researchers out of the University of Warwick report that their research finds that women’s health suffers from sleep deprivation more than men’s. Women who slept five or fewer hours per night were twice as likely to suffer from hypertension than women who slept seven or more hours. Among the male participants, no such association was found.

When you’re pregnant, stress abounds. You have a gazillion appointments to remember, worries about the baby’s health, possible financial concerns, etc.

You might be shooting yourself in the foot, big-time, if you don’t work on de-stressing. A new survey shows that babies born to women who had high stress levels during pregnancy may sleep poorly compared to babies born to women who weren’t anxious or depressed or particularly stressed.

The investigators suspect that elevated stress hormones that mark depression and anxiety may shape fetal brain development in a way that disturbs early-life sleep patterns.

Crappy sleeping patterns not only make the first few months (or years, in some cases - preggos, pretend you didn’t read that) more difficult for the parents, but children with poor sleep habits are also more likely to develop behavioral problems later on.

What’s an expectant mother to do?

Relax as much as possible. Try to focus on the positives of the pregnancy and the end result (your wonderful baby!) instead of worrying about what-ifs. Ask your doctor about relaxation techniques you can do at home. You may not have any control over the things that stress you out, but you can learn to control your reaction to those stressful things.

It’s also important to remember that some worries and emotional ups and downs are to be expected with pregnancy, [Dr. Thomas] O’Connor noted. It’s when symptoms begin to impair a woman’s daily life, such as her ability to work or get along normally in her relationships, that there may be a problem.

Take it easy, pregnant readers. Your baby just may sleep better for it!

Posted by Sunshine.