Only 20 percent of all teens get the recommended nine hours of sleep per night. Yet more than half of all teens report feeling sleepy during the day.  The impact of this includes being late to school or falling asleep in school, being too tired to exercise or driving while drowsy. According to a new study, electronic devices may contribute to teens not getting enough sleep at night. In the study, 100 teens filled out questionnaires about how much time after 9 p.m. they spent with various electronic devices.  The results were eye-opening: 82 percent reported watching television, more than half reported on-line computer use, and a little less than half reported talking on the phone.  Fifty-seven percent reported completing homework.  On average, teens engaged in four technology activities after 9 p.m.  And, caffeine consumption tended to be higher in the teens who were multitasking and getting less sleep.

Suggestions to improve your teen’s sleep:
1.    Avoid having a TV or computer in the bedroom and turn them off at least 30-60 minutes before bedtime.
2.    Set limits for when your teen can make or receive phone calls and text messages.
3.    Limit caffeine, especially after lunch time.
4.    Make sleep a priority in your family and set a good example.

If you are concerned about your teen’s sleep habits, learn more about how we can help by visiting Children’s Sleep Center.

With Halloween around the corner this month, horror movies are filling our theaters and TV guides. If your child has bad dreams, avoid these films and pay attention to what your child watches on TV.

Nightmares occur at all ages, but the peak ages are between 3 and 6 years old, when most children’s imaginations blossom. The content of these dreams varies across the age groups. Younger children may dream about separation from parents, shots at the doctor’s office or scary monsters. Older children may have nightmares about stories they’ve seen in the movies or on TV.

Telling the difference between nightmares and sleep terrors can be difficult because they both can happen in early childhood and the child may appear frightened and scream under both conditions. But during sleep terrors, the child doesn’t appear to be awake, and trying to console the child worsens the situation. Children can recall details about a bad dream but have no memory of a sleep terror. Therefore, sleep terrors often are more distressing to the parent or caregiver than the child.

So, what is a parent to do?

Nightmares and sleep terrors increase with sleep deprivation, so a regular sleep schedule, good sleep habits (no TV, computer or video games or caffeine before bedtime) and a quiet sleep environment are helpful. Avoiding frightening movies. Parental reassurance and security objects may help with nightmares. If your child seems to fight or avoid your attempts to comfort, he or she may be having a sleep terror. The best thing to do is to make sure your child is safe but avoid contact. Interfering with the sleep terror may increase your child’s agitation and prolong the episode. Don’t worry, sleep terrors usually disappear by adolescence. But nightmares can persist into adulthood, so choose your movies wisely this Halloween season.

–Louella Amos, MD, fellow, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Sleep Center

October is SIDS Awareness Month, so it’s a good time to review safe sleep practice for babies. Babies need to sleep safely and develop a healthy bond with their mothers. These two essential newborn needs must occur in the first months of an infant’s life, but they do not occur simultaneously.

How can a loving parent provide the safest possible sleep environment for that beautiful little infant? The most important advice has been repeated since 1992: Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep. This has cut the number of infant deaths from sudden infant death syndrome in half.

Unfortunately, 50 percent of babies still are dying. A close look at the deaths has revealed that many of these babies who died were sleeping in unsafe places. We don’t know all of the answers to the question of why these babies die. But we do know the chance of death would have been reduced if those babies were placed to sleep in the way recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

(more…)

School will be starting soon. It’s time to help get your kids on a healthy back to school sleep schedule.

Kids need more sleep than adults. Children ages 6 to 12 years old need 10 to 11 hours of sleep at night. Teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep.

It’s important to get enough sleep because chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to poor school performance, behavioral, developmental and mood problems, weight gain and obesity. Drowsy teens who get behind the wheel of a car can cause a deadly accident.

Here’s a sleep checklist to start working on now:

(more…)

At the Infant Death Center of Wisconsin, a significant part of our job is to educate families about the importance of a safe sleep environment and what exactly that means: Infants should be placed alone, on their backs in a crib, bassinet or portable crib for every sleep time. If these safe sleep measures were practiced, the number of preventable infant deaths in our community would be greatly reduced.

(more…)