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 received my Time magazine in the mail today and started to read it right away. I always find it very helpful in keeping up with world news. To my surprise I came upon an article about how eighth graders are being recruited for colleges. You read right. Eighth graders, who have not taken SATs and don’t even know what they want to study, are being contacted by coaches to let them know they count on them. Of course, that will be four years from now.

Apparently, competition is driving teams to search for young possible prospects. According to Scout.com the number of high school juniors committing early to big-college-football schools is up 430% (61 committed in 2003, 323 this year). Men’s ice hockey coaches have recruited ninth-graders, and women’s volleyball coaches are scouting younger and younger girls. Scout.com provides rankings, videos and history of kids who are prospects for professional sports league.

Even if kids are good there are some people that just want to benefit of the great deals and contracts. There are sites that rank kids as young as in sixth grade! Some coaches want the best for their kids, but others… the best for their pockets.

Kids (as well as adults) have many special talents but I think it is important to give them exposure to different things before making decisions. My son loves to swim and he has his mind set on competing for some college. I think that’s great, but if suddenly his shoulder dislocated he won’t be able to keep swimming. That is why I’m trying to let him know that it is important to have options. A career gives you options and stability. Although I think it is important to motivate a child, it is also important to let them know that not everyone will be able to play and become a great sport star. A touch of reality can do wonders for a child’s developing personality.

I’m my son’s biggest fan and I’ll be there to support his decisions. It is my job to give him exposure to different scenarios and to provide a realistic approach to things. But in the end, all we can give our kids are experiences and memories… they will have to make their own decisions regardless of what we think.

Posted by momcrazyforkids.

A Fat Set-Up: A new study looks at societal pressures that may be significant contributors to the increasing childhood obesity epidemic. Three areas of concern: Soft drink company contracts with schools that give kids easy access to sugary drinks; the lack of supermarkets, and overage of fast food restaurants and convenience stores, in poorer neighborhoods; and advertising that steers young people to junk food. “Research is showing us that we have in our schools and communities a perfect storm that will continue to feed the childhood obesity epidemic until we adopt policies that improve the health of our communities and our kids,” said Frank Chaloupka, head of the University of Illinois at Chicago research team.

C-Sections and Birth Days: Two new studies find that more and more babies are being born during the week, and fewer on weekends, as the number of elective, planned C-sections rises. Hospitals tend to schedule C-sections for when their units are fully staffed, and when personnel are working their “normal” hours so as to avoid overtime costs.

This is weird: People magazine has an item on model and dad-to-be Gabriel Aubry - boyfriend of pregnant actress Halle Berry - that includes this speculation: “So, will the world’s sexiest baby since Shiloh Jolie-Pitt be a boy or a girl?” Um…since when are babies “sexy”?

Vaccine Report Card: The Centers for Disease Control reported that vaccination rates for young children remain high, with 77% of children aged 19-35 months on schedule for vaccines in 2006. (The 2010 goal set by the CDC is 90%.)

In general, teens are behind when it comes to newer vaccines: “[O]nly about 12 percent of 13-17-year-olds had received the new meningococcal conjugate vaccine and only about 11 percent had gotten the combined tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough vaccine.”

The top performing states in terms of childhood vaccines are:

• Massachusetts: 83.6 percent
• Connecticut: 82 percent
• North Carolina: 81.5 percent
• Georgia: 81.4 percent
• Pennsylvania: 80.8 percent

The states with the lowest rates of childhood vaccinations are:

• West Virginia: 68.4 percent
• Alaska: 67.3 percent
• Montana: 65.6 percent
• Wyoming: 63.5 percent
• Nebraska: 59.5 percent

As school gets under way, it seems like a perfect time to remind parents of backpack safety tips. Improper backpack wearing can lead to muscle strain and other back, neck, and shoulder injuries. Kindergarten kiddos up through college students are at risk.

To minimize the chances of backpack-induced injuries, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) shares these tips:

Also, look for these features when selecting a backpack:

If your child has red marks on his shoulders after wearing his backpack, experiences pain or tingling in his arms/shoulders while wearing it, has trouble getting the pack on and off, or must shift his weight regularly to stay comfortable with it, the backpack is probably overloaded. Help your child find ways to reduce the load and stay comfortable - and healthy! - while toting school supplies.

Posted by Sunshining.

Heat Dangers: According to the Annual Survey of Football Injuries, heat-related deaths in middle and high school football players spiked in 2006, with five 11 to 17-year-olds dying of heat stroke, all of which the author of the survey notes could have been avoided. Seven other young players died of heart-related events that may or may not have been heat-related as well.

To prevent heat-related deaths, the following safety tips are offered:

• Require each athlete to have a physical and know if an athlete has a history of heat-related illness; these kids are more susceptible to heat stroke. Overweight players are also at higher risk.

• Acclimatize players to the heat slowly; North Carolina mandates that the first three days of practice be done without uniforms.

• Alter practice schedules to avoid long workouts in high-humidity.

• Provide cold water before, during and after practice in unlimited quantities.

• Provide shaded rest areas with circulating air; remove helmets and loosen or remove jerseys; some schools have plastic outdoor pools filled with ice for cool-downs after practice.

• Know the symptoms of heat illness: nausea, incoherence, fatigue, weakness, vomiting, muscle cramps, weak rapid pulse, visual disturbance. Contrary to popular belief, heat stroke victims may sweat profusely.

• Have an emergency plan in place; parents should inquire about emergency plans for their kids’ teams.

Costly Error: New South Wales’ Attorney-General announced a new provision attached to breastfeeding protection laws that warns that anyone who violates a woman’s right to nurse her child in public could face a fine of up to $40,000. The Attorney-General noted, “Unfortunately there are some unsympathetic attitudes to breastfeeding in public areas, yet we all know that breastfeeding is a very important thing for both the health of the child and also the health of a mother.”

A Fat Nation: A Johns Hopkins study concludes that if Americans keep gaining weight at their current rates, fat will be the norm here by 2015, with a projected 41% of adults obese and 34% overweight but not obese.

SIDS? Or Something Else? In what is sure to create a stir in the SIDS research community, the current British Medical Journal presents a re-analysis of 46 cases of families experiencing a second instance of sudden infant death. The original analysis, published in the British medical journal Lancet, found that 90% of the repeat deaths were attributable to SIDS, while the BMJ study contests these findings, and instead researchers write that only 43% of the deaths were probably natural (SIDS), while 13% are probably unnatural (homicide) and the rest undetermined.

Early Warning Signs of Adolescent Problems: A new study out of the Universities of Montreal and Oslo finds that young children with behavior problems are more likely to be rejected by their peers and to lack friends. These children are at risk for adjustment problems as they enter adolescence. Targeting elementary peer relationships may be key to preventing adolescent depression.

I recently went to the spa to cash in my birthday present - a manicure, pedicure, facial and full body massage (way to go hubby!). This isn’t something I do often; in fact, I feel rather uncomfortable getting pampered like that, but I figure being a mom of 2 young boys I deserve a little me-time now and then. While I was there I was surprised to see how many teenagers were there getting the royal treatment. Apparently this is a trend seen around the country, and it’s not just teens but preteens and even younger. They’re getting facials, manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxings, highlights, etc.

What’s the harm, you might ask? Well, according to one expert on children and commercial culture, “…getting kids used to spa treatments is akin to training them to be little Paris Hiltons.” The message being sent to kids is that it takes an external source to achieve happiness, instead of looking internally for real happiness or self-worth. Not only is it expensive to send your kid to the spa, but also it transforms your child into little walking mannequins, obsessed with their looks.

I remember as a kid going to the hair salon to get a haircut was a treat, which probably is the reason that going to the spa as an adult makes me feel like a Queen for a day. If my mother had treated me to the spa as a child (did they even exist back then?), what would I have to look forward to now?

Posted by Pager12.

Vitamin D: A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low levels of vitamin D, which is vital for bone health. Vitamin D is also important for immune function, and low levels may leave one at risk for cancer and other diseases. Dietary vitamin D is found in fortified milk, but some daily exposure to sunshine is the best way to boost levels.

Smokers to Pay for Kids’ Insurance? Debate is underway in Congress on how to pay for the plan to offer health insurance to the nation’s uninsured children, and it is likely that an additional tobacco tax will be part of the plan to fund the program. Democrats are looking for an additional $50 billion to pay for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next five years. Advocates for tobacco companies call another tax increase unfair, but the American Medical Association argues that higher taxes on cigarettes lead to fewer cancer and heart disease patients, as well as reducing the number of youth smokers.

Napping = Unhealthy? Research presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies concludes that for young children, napping may impair healthy night sleep and thus cognitive performance. The researchers measured how well 27 preschoolers could solve puzzles requiring planning and organizational skills. Those who took longer naps performed less well. The nappers also tended to sleep poorly at night and struggled to get up in the mornings.

I was talking with a mom at my son’s swimming class and she told me that she was going to take him out of it because he was feeling stress out. He no longer wants to practice and only wants to spend time in his room. She was a little upset but she said he’ll probably get over it.

After hearing that I did some research and found that as many as 1 in every 33 children may have depression; in teens, that number may be as high as 1 in 8. In an article about this topic they point out that depressed kids have described themselves as feeling hopeless about everything or feeling that nothing is worth the effort. They honestly believe that they are no good, that their world is a difficult place, and that they’re helpless to do anything about it.

Even if your child goes through a difficult situation, one of the hardest thing for a parent is to accept that depression is nobody’s fault. There are many signs that must be watch for and you can see all of them here. These signs must also lead to significant difficulties in peer interaction, play and recreation, school performance, family interactions, or disturbance of normal development.

As with any other medical concern, if you have a problem please consult your a health professional.

I hope this kid from my son’s swimming class just have a couple of bad days. I hope his mother recognize if there are any symptoms and I REALLY hope that she gets help if needed. You can always give advice to parents but the reality is that only you will decide what path to follow. Let us hope we make intelligent decisions that keep helping our children.

Posted by Momcrazyforkids.