Moms: A New School Year Can Spell Sleep Relief (or Not)

"A woman's work is never done" - a phrase that will never go out of style, and its partner - a woman's often low-quality sleep life. At least that's what some are reporting as study after study indicate that all the multitasking in the world can't create more time to rest and enjoy leisure time.

In fact, a study that came out earlier this year in The Economist revealed that, across 18 countries, men had between 4 to 80 minutes more leisure time per day than women.

Now, 4 more minutes isn't all that much. But 80? That's plenty of time for a good long nap, more time in bed, or simply some downtime sitting on the couch.

Many moms are rejoicing at the thought of the kids going back to school. This means:

• Keeping regular routines and a consistent schedule.
• Having set bed times and wake times.
• Not having to provide entertainment or activities for kids as much during long, summer days.
• No more sleepovers, pool parties, and events way past the kids' bedtime.
• Knowing you've got teachers and a school helping to care for the best interests of your children.

All of these things bode well for the mom trying to avoid major sleep deprivation. With the start of school, however, also come the occasional late-night homework and school projects. Calls from the nurse to come pick up sick little Suzie and take her home. And keeping up with the school-year's list of household chores like laundry, meal planning, and lunch-making.

Men and women do share more household responsibilities now more than ever, but it's still the women who carry the heaviest load of caretaking, basically acting as CEO of a family. Another recent study out of the University of Cincinnati suggests that the uneven distribution of domestic responsibilities result in stresses that may be driving a trend of lower quality sleep among working women.

Solution? Either the men have to pick up more slack, or the women have to give themselves permission to do less. Which is more realistic? I'll leave that answer to you.

But if I can give these over-tasked and over-tasking women a few tips to consider as this school year kicks off, here's a few with an eye toward better sleep:

• Knock one item off your "To Do" list a day and aim to be in bed 15 minutes earlier than the previous night.
• Give yourself a set bed time and wake time, just as you do your kids. You wouldn't let your seven year old stay up past midnight, so why should you?
• Likewise, you watch what your kids eat before bedtime. What are you eating within an hour of your bed time? If you're in the kitchen plowing through a box of sugary cookies or leftover meatloaf, reconsider.
• If you read to your kids at bedtime, you're teaching them great habits for sleep hygiene. Reading can help a person to unwind, relax, and prepare for sleep. When's the last time you did something like that before putting yourself to bed?

Welcome to the new school year. May it be filled with fresh wisdom, challenging activities, and lots of sound sleep.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

This article on moms and sleep is also available at Dr. Breus' official blog, The Insomnia Blog.

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Sleepless Kids Become Fat Adults

I feel like I've written about this topic numerous times before, but the studies just keeping coming and coming and coming... and a new one just confirmed what we've already had a clue about: the more sleep-deprived you are, the greater your risk is for being overweight and obese.

And this is true for both adults and kids. This is believed to be due to the fact proper sleep makes for a proper balance of hormones related to appetite, hunger, metabolism, and even fat retention.

But what this most recent study, which was just reported this week, actually reveals that we haven't learned before is this: a child's risk of being fat in adulthood increases due to poor sleep habits as a kid.

That's right: how well your kids sleep will have long-term effects on them. The relationship between sleep and obesity risk is much more intricate and "time-consuming" than previously thought. To think that a kid's sleep habits relate to his or her chances of being an obese adult is pretty astonishing. It's contrary to conventional wisdom to think that inadequate sleep in childhood has long-lasting consequences

Let me spell out the good news: if you can help your child get a good night's rest, you can help your kid avoid being overweight or worse, obese later in life. I think it's much easier to force a kid to bed earlier than to force him or her to stop eating junk food on a consistent basis. Not that parents shouldn't also help their kids learn to eat well for life, but you know what I mean.

Kids need more sleep than adults do. Those between the ages of 5 and 12 should bank about 11-12 hours each night, while teenagers should get 9 to 10 hours.

How many hours are yours getting? Do you even know?

Things that could be keeping your kids up at night:

• Too much electronic media like cell phones, computers, and video games. Is there a media curfew in the household?


• Not enough physical activity during the day to make them sleepy at night. Do they engage in enough physical activity during the day--at least 30 minutes of cardio?


• Poor time management as our kids find themselves up late finishing homework. Are they overwhelmed with things to do but not enough time to do it all? (Sounds like an adult problem, but our kids can suffer the same when they really shouldn't have to... yet.)


• A natural inclination to go to bed late and get up late due to their young biological rhythms. The problem is they can't sleep in every day due to school obligations so they are forced to cut their sleep short.

No parent wants his or her kid to grow up fat or obese, so I think it is good to know we can help prevent that from happening just by focusing on instilling habits of good sleep hygiene into our kids. It will reinforce good habits in our own lives, too. One would hope...

This article on sleep is also available on Dr. Breus' official blog, The Insomnia Blog.

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