Many parents are worried about their baby’s sleep even before their child is born, and with good reason. It’s tiring having a new baby, but having the best routine for your newborn is VERY HELPFUL. I don’t recommend sleep training until your baby is between 4-6 months of age (although “Le pause” sleep training can…
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new podcast, The Sleep Edit, co-hosted with my friend Arielle Greenleaf, a noted sleep consultant. In this podcast, we’ll explore common sleep issues affecting children of all ages, helping both kids and parents achieve better sleep.
Our first episode, now available, tackles the perpetually tricky topic of getting children to sleep through the night. Since it’s such an expansive issue, we’ve split the episode into two parts.
This episode covers
The…
This intervention was originally created to help young children (ages four to six) cope with trauma experienced during wartime. Dr. Avi Sadeh, an Israeli sleep physician, created it to help young children children affected by shelling in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. In a second study, he and his collaborators assessed how well this intervention would…
Crawling into bed with your child after a long day can be comforting. But this habit might interfere with her ability to sleep alone. Learn how to transition a child out of your bed and stop co-sleeping for good, even if your child has always slept with you. In an earlier post, I reviewed reasons…
Please share the The School, Sleep, and COVID-19 Survey with your teenage patients. Here’s a short video on a patient who received a Nature Prescription. I want to highlight the work by Brazendale et al on the Structured Days hypothesis. Here’s a copy of the slides. Here are the references form the talk:…
I often get requests from students and educators interested in learning more about the start time issue. Here is my continually updated teen sleep info including articles and resources for anyone interested in teenage sleep and school start times. Here’s the talk I give to parents, kids, and school boards when asked to speak on…
Not to be maudlin or morbid, but how many bedtimes do you have left with your children? Each night represents one of a precious and finite number of events with your children. I don’t mean that anything bad will happen. It’s more that I can’t help but feel that cliche of parenting— my children are…
This is a guest post written by Cayla Lemire, a friend and former patient. Over my 27 years of being alive, the healthcare system has been a part of my life since I was diagnosed at 9 months old. Since then, the hospital has been my second home, while the staff throughout it, has been…
I’ve written at length about the dilemma of the teenager: how large amounts of homework and early school start times prevent adequate sleep, leading to problems with mood, academic achievement, safety, and many other issues. Many teens go through live in haze that one scientist has described as social jet lag, consuming excessive amounts of…
There are lots of reasons that parents fail at sleep training their children. One of the most often overlooked is timing. If you pick the wrong time to start, you are doomed to failure. You really want to allow yourself about two weeks of time without any major changes in routine to maximize your chance…
I was interviewed last month at Wellocracy about way your body clock can work for you or against you. For most people, their schedule is working against their natural inclinations. If you are wondering how well your sleep schedule is meeting your needs, it is very easy to figure this out. On a typical day…
Like all parents, we have learned what works in our home through trial and error with our little boys, who are now almost three and almost six years of age respectively. There are many rules which are bent, stretched, or shattered depending on the circumstances. One rule, however, that we have learned to respect is…
I’m excited to announce that I will be starting a new job at Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, starting July 2nd. I’m joining the division of Respiratory Medicine (Pulmonology) at Yale, with the goal of building a strong Pediatric Sleep Program. This will bring us closer to our families in Connecticut and New York….
I have a confession to make. My children are not perfect sleepers. My five-year old boy used to always sleep through the night. Then, about the time he started kindergarten, he started waking up at night and wandering into our room. Sometimes it was because he was afraid of something; on other times, he couldn’t…
Co-sleeping is about as controversial as vaccination online. And that is saying something. But I think that is important to review the evidence about the safety of this topic in infancy. Paying careful attention to your child’s sleeping venue and position can avoid tragedy in the first year of life. First off, let’s put together…
Happy to send this your way.