The Early Bird verses the Night Owl

Cassie and I are the best of friends and our personalities are very similar, which makes working with her on kidsgoals a breeze. We are both like minded and never seem to disagree about anything. There is only one thing where we are not quite on the same wave length, and that is our sleeping patterns. Cassie is definitely a morning person and is usually in bed by 9 PM or earlier and up at 6 AM, while I am a definitely a night owl and I am lucky to make it to bed by midnight. Luckily my husband is also a night owl and my children during the holidays prefer to go to bed later and sleep in the next day.

When Cassie visited me in Canada I followed her lead and started going to bed when she did and also to wake up when she did. It was nice because the days seemed to last longer and since she was only here for two weeks I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. Alas, when she went back to the UK I went back to my old habits rather quickly. Cassie is very rigid when it comes to her sleep hygiene and I know she is appalled at my lack of it.

Recently I came across an article in "Psychology Today" that it may be better to be an early bird. According to the article people who are early to bed and early to rise are more agreeable than their counterparts. Not to mention according to a study by Pennsylvania University, adolescents who stay up late and then sleep in are more likely to have behavioral problems.

So Cassie my dearest friend you are right on the money after all!!! I probably won't ever be a morning person naturally, but for the sake of my children, I am starting to think that a better sleep schedule for this family may be just what the Dr. ordered. Not to mention the new school year will be starting up soon and the quicker I get my kids used of a regular sleep routine the easier it will be on them and me.

Happy Parenting,:-)

Monicka

Back to School Sleep Hygiene for Kids

School time is fast approaching. Have you started preparing your children for the earlier starts that they need to make during term time?

Some top tips to help you help your kids re-adjust their sleep ready for a fresh school year:

• Start moving sleep back to normal at LEAST 10 days before school is due to start.
• Stick to a proper sleep hygiene 7 days a week - don't allow your kids to stay up later than normal on the weekends. It confuses their body-clocks.
• If you haven't already, create a pleasant and relaxing bedtime routine Reading is always good, and something you can do together no matter what the age of your children.
• Keep the bedroom cool and quiet, with dim lights.
• No PC, TV or video games in the bedroom
• Don't allow use of TV or computer in the hour leading up to bedtime.

If you follow these good sleep hygiene suggestions, your kids have a great chance of building up some refreshing sleep ready for an energised start to the school year!

Happy sleeping,

Cassie

Dreams and Babies

In Mondays' blog I talked about how important dreams are to our health and well- being. Babies also benefit from dreaming and studies have shown that babies spend 66% of their sleeping time in REM state and premature babies spend 80% of their sleep time in dream state. Researchers believe that there may be a correlation between the dream state and brain development.

Many new parents find out soon enough that their babies sleep cycles are much shorter than an adults and it takes time for those cycles to get longer and for your baby to learn how to fall back to sleep on his own if he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Happy Parenting

Monicka

Dream On

Cassie and I love to analyze each others dreams. We have a dream dictionary and we try and find out what our dreams are trying to tell us. Whether you believe dreams are significant or not research has shown that people who are deprived of the dream phase of sleep or (REM) will become irritable and feel anxious. In one study volunteers were woken up before they entered the dream state and then were allowed to fall back asleep. This was repeated through the night. All the volunteers were allowed to sleep the same amount of hours they normally did. The next day the volunteers were observed as being disoriented, depressed, crabby and quick tempered and some ate more than ususual. As the study continued the subjects became even more agitated and showed lack of concentration and even memory loss.


Dreams are necessary for our well- being and health but in order to dream we have to also get adequate sleep especially children and teens.

Happy Dreaming

Monicka

Teens and Sleep

Many parents allow their teenage children to set their own bed time, or at least to go to bed later than the younger children in the family. But did you know that teenagers in fact need at least as much sleep as their younger siblings? Check out the article on Teens and Sleep which outlines the serious implications for a teenager of not getting enough sleep, and highlights from modern research what the most important things are that you can do to assist your teen in getting a good night's sleep.

Happy parenting,

Cassie

Kids and Sleep Deprivation

A new study performed in Australia (see link) compared data from two surveys of kids and sleeping habits, one survey from 1985 and one from 2004.

The results showed that the 2004 children were sleeping an average of about 1/2 an hour less per night than the kids back in 1985 - mainly due to later bed times.

A possible culprit might be the increasing incidence of kids having TVs and computers in their bedroom.

Sleep scientists claim that adolescents need 9.5 hours of sleep per night (http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=5137) .. how much sleep is your teen getting?

Happy parenting and sweet dreams!

Cassie

Autism and Sleep

Happy Friday Everyone

Cassie is a firm believer in proper sleep hygiene and I am finding that even though I am more of a night owl, I am slowly changing my sleep habits for the better. She was apalled at the late hours my children sometimes keep and suggested that maybe my son, who suffers from frequent colds, would benefit with more sleep. All well and good if there was a way to make him go to bed earlier without the nightly ritual of having to get something to eat or drink or tell me something he forgot to mention earlier. My teenage daughter, who has Asperger's, seems to be able to get by on the minimum amount of sleep and still function properly but that is not always the way with kids on the spectrum. Many have sleeping difficulties and find it not only difficult to fall asleep but also to stay asleep.

An extreme example was a child I read about in a Discovery magazine article, who had to sleep standing up leaning against his dresser because he had so much discomfort at night that was the only way he could get any rest.

All the best

Monicka