Did you know that your menstrual cycle can affect your child's sleep? If not, you would not be alone in that category. Many individuals do not think about the fact that the menstrual cycle and their babies are potentially linked. However, they are, especially if you are breastfeeding. Continue reading to learn more about how your menstrual cycle can affect your baby's sleep and what you can do to negate the impact.
The teenage years are a time of profound growth, exploration, and transformation, both physically and mentally. As adolescents navigate the challenges and opportunities of this pivotal stage, sleep plays a crucial role in their overall well-being, academic performance, and emotional health. However, negotiating sleep with a teenager can often feel like navigating uncharted territory, filled with late nights, varying sleep schedules, and evolving preferences. In this blog post, we'll explore practical strategies and tips for negotiating sleep with a teenager, fostering healthy habits, and promoting restful nights for the entire family.
Sleep training is the process of helping your child learn to fall asleep in their bed on their own. It seems like it's something that lasts forever and then just stops because there's no clear answer on when you're done. For some, the point is obvious when they no longer need to sleep train. For others, however, sleep training tends to drag on a little bit longer. Success in sleep training is on a continuum, meaning that more than likely you are not going to ever be done. So what someone else may consider successful for them will not necessarily work for you and your family.
For example, some parents may think that sleep training involves allowing their baby to fuss for a few minutes and then they drift off to sleep for 11:50 hours straight. For other parents, they may not have things go as smoothly. It might take two to three weeks of using a no crying training before they have a child who can sleep throughout the night. Parents may even use a cry it out method, and then two to three nights later they have a child who sleeps through the night.
Even with all these categories, there are still families who do not fall into any of them. They struggle on and off for a long time. Perhaps they find something that works, but then it stops working after a short while and you have to switch to something else. There seems to be this path of consistently trying, and you may feel like you never get the chance to stop sleep training. This can be extremely frustrating, and even unsettling as you may wonder if you're doing something wrong or if there's something wrong with your child.
No need to worry, sleep training can look very different for each child. Continue reading to learn more about the signs that may appear when you are done sleep training. Now of course these signs are not hard and fast, so make sure to sort of apply these rules generally to your child.
Have you ever noticed that there are certain parts of the day where you are feeling extremely alert, and then there are other parts of the day where you can barely keep your eyes open? This is because of two body systems: sleep/wake homeostasis and your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm serves as your internal body clock and tells your body when it is night and day. These two systems can control your sleep drive, or your body's need to sleep at any given time. Continue reading to learn more about your sleep drive and how it interacts with your body clock so that way you know how to better manage your sleepiness.
Many parents assume that children absolutely need night lights for their rooms. A well placed night light can actually reduce the amount of fumbling that is caused during midnight feedings and changings. However, is a night light distracting to the baby? Is one really necessary in the room? Whenever we talk about environmental necessities for good sleep and adults, we always say that the room needs to be absolutely dark. A night light defeats the purpose of having a super dark room. Therefore you may be questioning what kind of night light you need for your baby, and how you should appropriately place it in the room so that way it does not disrupt your baby's sleep. Therefore, we invite you to continue reading to learn some good dos and don'ts for helping your baby get a good night's sleep with a night light.
If you've ever had to go for a polysomnography, they have probably hooked your head up to a bunch of wires. These wires are there to measure brain activity while you are sleeping. The official term for what this test is is an EEG, or an electroencephalogram. The EEG will provide a recording of electrical activity in your brain while you are awake and sleeping. It involves having small electrodes placed around your head which are attached to your scalp using a paste. You may also be asked to breathe deeply or look into a flashlight at some point during the recording. This, also known as activation technique. The test can normally take up to two hours if that's the only thing that you're doing.
People normally get EEG that they struggle with electrical activity, like seizures. EEG's are also useful for determining what stage of sleep people are in. As part of the test, you may also be video recorded to help diagnose your condition. You will be asked to sign the consent form at the beginning of the test to allow for recording of your brain activity and interpretation of the results. Continue reading to learn more about a sleep EEG, who should get one, and what it is like.
Sleep fragmentation is exactly what it sounds like, fragmented sleep. Fragmented sleep is continually disrupted sleep due to a variety of causes. This is an issue because fragmented sleep leads to less time overall sleeping, and especially less time in more restorative stages of sleeping like deep sleep. It's important to determine the cause of fragmented sleep in order to begin a treatment or recovery plan for it. The interruptions are not considered a sleep disorder, but maybe the manifestations or symptoms of a sleep disorder, which is why it's so important to recognize if you have fragmented sleep and begin the work up to determine why.
Excessive daytime sleepiness is characterized by the strong urge to go to sleep during activities in which you should be alert and awake. Have you experienced excessive daytime sleepiness? If so, then your physician might recommend that you undergo sleep-related testing. One of these tests might be the multiple sleep latency test, or MSLT. This can help you measure daytime sleepiness. We will discuss what MSLT can diagnose, who would take the test, preparing for it, with expectations for it, and understanding the results.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a chronic neurological disorder that is characterized by an insatiable desire to sleep that is not fulfilled by a regular night of sleep. Those with the idiopathic hypersomnia sleep for longer than the normal amounts of time of sleep each night. However, despite this, they still feel incredibly tired the next day. They may take long naps, but don't feel any better when they wake up. It is almost like they are experiencing untreatable sleep deprivation. Continue reading to learn more about the symptoms, diagnosis, and causes of idiopathic hypersomnia, and what you can do to treat it.
Although this may sound crazy, sleep apnea can occur in dogs. We normally focus on human sleep experiences, but so many people are intimately connected with their dogs, that they may be curious if their dogs have sleep disorders as well.
Individuals who have breeds like English Bulldogs, French Bulldogs, chihuahuas, pugs, and cavalier King Charles spaniels are all dogs that have a higher rate of sleep apnea than others. Symptoms of sleep apnea in dogs appear similar to those experienced by humans with sleep apnea. However there is no formal classification system for sleep apnea as there is with adults.
Learning the signs of sleep apnea and dogs can help you recognize the signs to see if you should alert your veterinarian to help make any changes to your dog's sleep pattern.