As a sleep doctor and parent, I think that permanent daylight saving is a terrible idea for kids. Here’s some information on why this is event being considered. In March of 2022, in a rare bipartisan move, the Senate passed a bill, with little warning or debate, called the Sunshine Protection Act. It’s notable that this…
Room sharing but not bed sharing is recommend in the first six months of life for safe sleep and avoiding accidental death in infants. However, for some parents, this may result in unsafe sleep practices. Here’s what you need to know. In June of 2022, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated their safe sleep…
Well, another year in the books for you and me. Certainly, although there were intimations of cases of a mysterious pneumonia in China one year ago, there’s no way that any of us anticipated the way the year would turn out. This year there are a few things that I did that I was especially…
Safe sleep in infancy is a challenging topic for tired parents. A recent study shows that car seats can be surprisingly risky for sleeping infants. Although memories of the first month or two of my 11 yo boy’s infancy are hazy, I vividly recall the screaming. It was like Green Eggs and Ham— he would…
A recent study out of New Zealand suggests that educating parents about sleep prior to the birth of their child, and supporting sleep training during early childhood, can reduce the risk of obesity in childhood. This adds to the literature relating sleep and childhood obesity. Although this is music to my ears, do these results…
Parents often wonder if solids will help baby sleep better. A new research study was released this week about solid food and baby sleep, and is already generating headlines: The study is entitled “Association of Early Introduction of Solids With Infant Sleep”, with a lead author of Michael R Perkin. (Perkin, M. R. et al….
This article was co-written with Terra Ziporyn Snider Ph. D, the co-founder and executive director of Start School Later. Recently, a school in Wisconsin posted a photo with suggested bedtimes based on children’s age and when they get up in the morning. This resulted in suggested bedtimes as early as 6:45 p.m. for younger children who…
Recently another blogger asked me for the five most things I thought that all parents should know about sleep. It was a bit hard for me to narrow it down, as this whole site is basically my answer to this question. After some reflection, here is my most critical sleep advice for parents: A good bedtime…
Today the Centers for Disease Control published the results of an annual survey of over 39,000 schools in the United States. They add to the growing chorus of voices advocating for later school start times for middle and high school age students. The results in a nutshell: school starts too early in America. Here is…
“When we first told our in-laws what we were doing, they thought we were monsters. Now they think we’re geniuses.” Source: Sleep Training at 8 Weeks: ‘Do You Have the Guts?’ – NYTimes.com I recently spoke to a journalist about this article in the New York Times. A pediatric group in New York is encouraging…
A new study reviewed all of the evidence about napping in small children and suggested that naps may cause problems at night in some children over age two. Here’s what this means, and why you shouldn’t panic.
Sleep deprivation in teens is at epidemic levels in this country. A recent study was published by the Centers for Disease Control on the amount of time that teenagers get on an average school night. Students were surveyed over school years from 2007–2013. The results of the survey were alarming, even to those of us…
The documentary Sleepless in America on the National Geographic Channel starts with the powerful story of a man who lost his wife and two of his children after they were struck by a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel. Drowsy driving is equivalent to drunk driving in terms of impairment and risk of accident. However,…
Let’s perform a thought experiment for a moment: if you knew that in your child’s school there was a toxic substance that reduced the capacity to learn, increased chances of a car crash and made it likely that 20 years from now he would be obese and suffer from hypertension, you’d do everything possible to…
As a sleep doctor, I hear a lot of creative excuses that children come up with as the try to extend their bedtime. In the business, we call these “curtain calls” and are a key feature of behavioral insomnia of the limit setting type. My niece used to yell, “Julia’s hurt!” until her family came…
Happy to send this your way.