Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Is Your Child Getting Enough Sleep?


What your kids do during the night has a huge impact on their daily lives.

Sleep plays a key role in mental, physical and emotional health, from infancy through teen years.

Now, experts at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have reviewed the research and arrived at a target slumber number for each age group.


Healthy Rest Offers Many Rewards

New guidelines published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine advise the following daily sleep totals:
  • 4 to 12 months: 12 to 16 hours
  • 1 to 2 years: 11 to 14 hours
  • 3 to 5 years: 10 to 13 hours
  • 6 to 12 years: 9 to 12 hours
  • 13 to 18 years: 8 to 10 hours

“The right amount of sleep helps kids learn well, behave and feel happy,” says Lewis Milrod, M.D., director of Pediatric Sleep Medicine and a neurologist at K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital.

“Adequate rest also wards off health problems like high blood pressure, extra weight and heart issues.”

It's normal for kids to resist  bedtime. Help ease them into a healthy sleep routine by remembering the following guidelines.
  • Modeling: Kids learn by watching you. Show them you value sleep and they’ll start to understand its importance.
  • Routines: “Keep sleep, waking, naps and play around the same time every day,” advises Dr. Milrod. “And develop soothing night time rituals, such as reading.”
  • Screen-Free Time: Ban phones, TVs and tablets from kids’ bedrooms.
"Make it a rule to shut them down at least 30 minutes before bedtime," Dr. Milrod says.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Health Experts: A shut-eye starved child is nothing to sleep on

A good night's sleep is as important to your child as a hearty breakfast. Without enough shut-eye, children are more likely to struggle with their school studies, do poorly on the playing field, and suffer depression.

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), children are getting less than the recommended amount of sleep over a 24-hour period. This can make it tough for your child to solve problems and memorize lessons, which can lower grades and self-esteem.

Sleep-starved kids are also more easily frustrated and fidgety. A child's sleep trouble affects the whole family. Parents who are up coaxing a child to bed are robbed of their own valuable sleep.

The best cure is a consistent bedtime schedule. Stick to a bedtime that permits this amount of nightly sleep:
  • 11 to 13 hours for a 3- to 5-year-old child. Preschoolers often have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Children this age also are more likely to have nightmares and sleep terrors, and to sleepwalk.
  • 10 to 11 hours for a school-aged child. Schoolchildren spend time with TV, computers, and the Internet, all of which can erode time for sleep. This age group also may be drinking caffeinated beverages that can affect the ease of falling asleep at night. Watching TV just before bedtime may make it more difficult to fall asleep and may create resistance or anxiety about bedtime. Too little sleep can lead to mood swings, and behavioral and cognitive problems.
If the current bedtime for your child is too late, move it 15 minutes earlier each night, until you reach the desired bedtime. Tuck resisters back into their own beds, promptly and repeatedly, until they get the message that you expect them to get to sleep on their own.

Sound Advice for Sound Sleep

  • Unplug : Turn off TVs, computers, and cell phones. Better yet, keep such things out of the bedroom, which should be a stimulation-free zone.
  • Wind down: Start the transition to sleep with dimmed lights and a warm bath; end with reading a book. Avoid watching TV just before bedtime.
  • Decaffeinate: Drinking any caffeine during the day can affect sound sleep. Caffeine is found not just in coffee and cola, but also in tea and chocolate.
  • Decompress: Overbooked kids who rush from band practice to dance class to dinner to homework may be too keyed up at bedtime to unwind. Experts recommend one activity per season.
  • Get help: If, despite these measures, your child still resists bedtime, has nighttime awakenings, or snores, talk with your doctor.
The sleep experts at Hackensack Meridian Health K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital can help determine if your child has a sleep disorder, or another type of neurological condition. Hackensack Meridian Health K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital offers the region's first pediatric sleep program, backed by research and dedication from our physicians and nurses. Learn more here.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Sleep and Your Child

A good night's sleep is as important to your child as a hearty breakfast. Without enough shut-eye, children are more likely to struggle with their school studies, do poorly on the playing field, and suffer depression, studies show.

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), children are getting less than the recommended amount of sleep over a 24-hour period.

This can make it tough for your child to solve problems and memorize lessons, which can lower grades and self-esteem. Sleep-starved kids are also more easily frustrated and fidgety. A child's sleep trouble affects the whole family. Parents who are up coaxing a child to bed are robbed of their own valuable sleep.

The best cure is a consistent bedtime schedule. Stick to a bedtime that permits this amount of nightly sleep:

  • 11 to 13 hours for a 3- to 5-year-old child - Preschoolers often have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, the NSF says. Children this age also are more likely to have nightmares and sleep terrors, and to sleepwalk.
  • 10 to 11 hours for a school-aged child - Schoolchildren spend time with TV, computers, and the Internet, all of which can erode time for sleep. This age group also may be drinking caffeinated beverages that can affect the ease of falling asleep at night. Watching TV just before bedtime may make it more difficult to fall asleep and may create resistance or anxiety about bedtime. Too little sleep can lead to mood swings, and behavioral and cognitive problems, the NSF says.

If the current bedtime for your child is too late, move it 15 minutes earlier each night, until you reach the desired bedtime. Tuck resisters back into their own beds, promptly and repeatedly, until they get the message that you expect them to get to sleep on their own.

Visit the Meridian Health Wellness Center for more sound sleeping advice.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Inadequate Sleep Detrimental to Teens' Physical and Mental Health

This year the American Academy of Pediatrics came out in support of delaying the start of the school day for older students to allow teenagers to get more sleep.

As reported in the Asbury Park Press, New Jersey State Senator Richard Codey supports the recommendation, announcing a bill last week that would direct the state Department of Education to study the benefits of delaying school start times.

“Studies are showing that our current school start time is flipped the wrong way,” Codey said. “Middle and high school start times are too early, and elementary and pre-k classes are too late.”

Lack of sleep is detrimental to mental health, making adolescents more prone to automobile crashes and hindering their academic and athletic performance, according to Dr. Carol Ash, director of sleep medicine at Meridian Health.

The physiology of teenagers makes it difficult for them to fall asleep quickly, she adds. Teenagers naturally require more time than adults to "wind down" before falling asleep, and distractions such as cell phones and television only exacerbate the problem.