The days can get so busy, that sometimes you feel like you've gone all day without really talking to your kids or connecting as a family. As kids get older and start participating in extracurricular activities, it can be even harder to find time to connect with them. But connecting before bed is really important. If your kids had a stressful day, or they are anxious about the following day, then bedtime can be a great place to talk about those feelings so they can get a good night of sleep. 

It may also provide you some solace to know that you were able to spend quality time with your children and everyone can go to bed on a positive and connected note. Here are some ways to connect with your kids before bed. 

When you share the bed with someone else, you are not only sharing physical space, but also emotional and mental space. Throughout the night, people's emotional and mental states can come alive through their sleep - whether that be a lack of sleep, too much sleeping, really light sleeping, nightmares, etc. 

As you both bring your bodies to the bed, you are also bringing your day's stress, worries, excitement, and other feelings as well. This mix of emotions and high stress can cause an unwelcoming sleeping environment. Here we will talk about how you can connect with your partner before bed, so you both an unwind together and have a great night of sleep. 

Nothing feels better than waking up on a Saturday morning to no alarm at your own leisure. It's nice to just be able to go with the flow instead of being demanded to get somewhere at a certain time. However, sleeping in on the weekends may actually be detrimental towards your sleep health. Here is some more information on why you should try and remain as consistent as possible. 

Naps are not just to help cranky kids or give parents a break. In fact, they actually may be best for learning in infanthood and early childhood. Recent studies have suggested that napping has a major benefit for infants and children. We are going to discuss how babies and kids use sleep for learning, and how this may shape your children's schedules until they grow out of it. 

The pandemic has come with its fair share of troubles, and sleep has been no exceptions. People all over the world have been struggling to get a good sleep pattern due to a variety of reasons. Schedules are simply not the same, and with the blending of home and work environments, it can be difficult to relax enough in your sleeping environment to get solid rest. This has led to a rise in the use of melatonin. However, melatonin is not the cure all supplement for sleep that it seems. Here we will discuss the rise of melatonin and its potential complications. 

Carbonated drinks are heavily consumed throughout the US. Whether you know them as pop, soda, coke, or another name, carbonated drinks are consumed at a high daily rate by US youths and adults. Soft drinks are also the most common source of added sugar in the average American diet. They are very popular, despite their link to a myriad of health problems, including weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart, liver and kidney disease. 

Soda can also negatively impact sleep. Continue reading to find out more about these drinks can delay necessary hours of precious sleep. 

Humans spend about a third of their lives sleeping. Scientists have struggled to figure out why, but there may be a very clear answer. Apparently, the reason for sleep is potentially that it gives the body time to repair damaged and broken DNA. Continue reading to find out how sleep assists with this very important biological process. 

As adults who never seem to get enough sleep, it can be easy to get frustrated over teens who seem to not realize the importance of sleep or take advantage of their freedom to go to sleep as early as they want. Fights over when children go to sleep can create unnecessary conflict and irritation in your household when the best approach may be to just leave them alone and let them sleep whenever they want. This is counterintuitive for the reasons listed below, but it may be time to throw in the towel and focus on something else in your child's life. Continue reading to find out more on how to let go of the sleep battle with your teen. 

Asthma and COPD are both obstructive diseases that make it difficult for lungs to completely get rid of all the air in them. Asthma is more common in younger patients and is reversible through treatment with drugs like albuterol and terbutaline. COPD is not reversible and is more evident in older patients, especially those with a history of smoking. It's important to know the difference between these two diseases, as well as the impact they can have on your sleep. Continue reading to find out more about sleep problems in these individuals. 

As we age, our circadian rhythm changes which can impact what time we need to go to sleep. The older we get, the earlier we are supposed to go to bed for an earlier wake time. This is due to many factors including changing eyesight (which can make us less sensitive to changes in light during the day), changing levels of melatonin, and other brain functions or hormone changes.

Research has supported the link between sleeping and health issues, including cardiovascular health disease. A recent study looked at bedtime and risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack. Continue reading to find out more about this relationship and the relationship between sleep and heart health in general.