Sleep Hygiene

Sleep Hygiene

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Sleep is an integral part of children’s health. Amazing things happen while they sleep, including bursts in physical growth and solidification of learning. Studies show that a good night’s sleep helps buoy moods, improve cognitive performance, and build the body’s resilience against illness and accidents. Problems with sleep are parts of major mental illnesses, including mood disorders. Some scientists suggest that depression is linked to prolonged REM sleep. There is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that ADHD may stem from “a sleepy brain.” Specialists have said that as many as 40% of children who meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD also meet criteria for a sleep disorder.

An article from the Wall Street Journal reviews findings that link sleep problems with depression, anxiety, substance abuse, aggression, learning problems, and obesity.

Good sleep hygiene is a must. It is also the first place to start when you notice patterns of childhood misbehavior or under-performance. Sleep hygiene includes:

  1. Routine: Regular, predictable soothing activities cue the brain that sleep is on the way. Reading, baths, relaxing music, calm activities, low lights, soft pajamas—integrate these into a pattern for your child. Start 1 hour before sleep is to begin.
  2. Children need more than 8 hours of sleep per night. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends the following sleep guidelines:
    • Infants: 14 to 15 hours
    • Toddlers: 12 to 14 hours
    • Preschoolers: 11 to 13 hours
    • School-age kids: 10 to 11 hours
    • Teenagers: 9 to 10 hours
  3. Turn off electronic media 2 hours before bed. Studies show that children with TVs and video games in their rooms get less sleep. Cell phones (including texts, email, games, and other apps) can also rob many teenagers of a good night’s sleep.

 

How Kids Think, Feel, and Behave

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Children’s brains are not fully developed (and won’t be until they are about 25 years old). This means that they do not solve problems like adults. Younger children tend to be:

  • Concrete (“If Grandma died and went to up to heaven, then I could totally take an airplane to see her”)
  • Impulsive (Karate-kick a houseplant)
  • Inquisitive (“Would my dog like chocolate pudding?”)
  • Magical-in-thinking (“If I think a tarantula is under my bed, then it absolutely is.”)
  • Under-Informed (“Sponge Bob can see me through the television.”)
  • Hypothesis-Testers (“What will mom do if I put my hand on the power outlet…again?”)
  • Repetitious (“Anything worth doing once, should be done ten more times”)
  • Distractible (Attention spans are limited, getting longer over time)
  • Unreliable cause-and-effect understanding (“Mom and Dad got divorced because of me.”)
  • Hyperactive (Most 3-year-old boys would meet criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD, but very few actually have it.)
  • Imbue innate objects with sentience (“My stuffed animal needs a hug.”)
  • Emotionally reactive (“Since I didn’t get ice cream, this is the worst day of my life.”)

With age, children’s reasoning becomes more sophisticated (but may not yet be rational). Then, bodily changes (including hormones and changes in neurochemistry) play a bigger role in the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of older children. Older children tend to be:

  • Convinced of their uniqueness (“No one has ever felt this way, and no one can ever understand me.”)
  • Egocentric (“Everyone in the world is looking at my zit.”)
  • Easily influenced (peer pressure)
  • Peer-focused (social life is more important than family life)
  • Variable in identity (try on different “selves” to answer critical questions about who I am, what I like, what I want to be)
  • Rebellious (challenging social, familial, and cultural norms)
  • Judicious (sensitive to “unfair” behaviors)
  • Impulsive (Diving into a shallow pool)
  • Under-Informed (starting a romantic online relationship)
  • Emotionally reactive (a break-up is the end of life)
  • Limit-testing (seeing how far parents’ rules can be bent)

For more information about normal childhood development, visit this website  (it’s an offshoot of American Academic of Pediatrics):

 

Best Parts of ADHD

Best Parts of ADHD

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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) includes styles of thinking, feeling, and behavior that can interfere with a child’s ability to do well at home, with friends, and at school. Children with ADHD usually have a poor sense of time, are hyperactive, disorganized, impulsive, forgetful, and do not like to do things that require sustained mental effort (such as homework). For these and other ADHD problems, there are evidence-based assessments, treatments, and strategies that can help improve functioning dramatically. These are good things about having ADHD—the available aids.

But the best parts of ADHD are these:

  • Great sense of humor
  • Creative, out-of-the box thinking
  • Innovative
  • Intuitive
  • Rarely bored
  • Periods of hyperfocus—really paying close attention to the task at hand
  • Empathic
  • Fast thinker
  • A whiz at starting projects
  • Desire to be and do better

For ADHD diagnostic criteria see: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html