The Effects of Sleep Deprivation - Babies and Toddlers

This is the first in a series about the effects of sleep deprivation on different groups and ages of people. Today we will be looking at young children.

Babies - though most people's perceptions of young babies is that they sleep all the time, it is in-fact possible (though rare) for babies to be sleep deprived. This can have a negative impact on their health and their growth, also with the suggestion that sleep deprivation can lead to babies being overweight. Research has also shown that babies who get enough sleep are more easy going and approachable.

In my years of working in day care I have noticed that babies who struggle with their sleep and do not get enough are more grumpy and irritable. They find separation from their parents difficult and are more easily distressed during the day. Once we had set up a good napping schedule for them, they found the day more easy going, were able to engage in activities and were happier and more content.

One of the problems in diagnosing sleep deprivation in babies is that all seem to have different sleep needs and habits. One baby may sleep happily anywhere at the drop of a hat, while another needs a more organized routine and environment to sleep. A baby who once slept through the night may suddenly start waking two or three times. As a rough guideline this chart shows the ideal times of recommended sleep through childhood. For babies and toddlers this is spread across daytime naps and nighttime sleeping.

Age                    Hours Of Sleep
0 - 2 months       10.5 - 18
2 - 12 months     14 - 15
1 - 3 years          12 - 14
3 - 5 years          11 - 13  
5 - 12 years        10 - 11

If you can recognize the signs of tiredness in your baby and act straight away by putting them to bed, then you will be setting them up for a good sleep pattern for life. These signs may include (and this list is not exclusive)-
pulling their ears, their eyelids looking red, rubbing their eyes, a glazed look in their eyes and a far away expression on their face, yawning, starting to cry for no reason and not being comforted or distracted by stimulation, lack of interest in toys or stimulation.

As babies grow their sleep needs change and things such as teething, growth spurts and starting daycare can affect their sleep patterns.

Toddlers still need plenty of sleep and like all age groups suffer from the affects of sleep deprivation. I am sure that most parents have a picture or two of a tired toddler who has fallen asleep in a strange place! However a lack of sleep can affect their learning and social skills, as well as their growth. Again sleep deprived toddlers can gain weight - but weight gain has many causes, not just sleep deprivation.

Toddlers are far more mobile than babies and conversely the signs of a tired toddler include running around and wild behaviour, this is a last stand against the tiredness that is growing in their bodies and not a sign that they have loads of energy left to burn. A toddler will naturally be energetic when they wake from a sleep but if they are running around in the late evening before bedtime it is that they are overtired, not full of energy that needs to burnt off.

Sleep deprived toddlers are also more likely to have moods and tantrums - but then this is also typical toddler behaviour!

In order to work out if your toddler is sleep deprived observe and record their behaviour, if they are having more tantrums and wild behaviour in the evenings or before nap time it points to them being tired. Also have a bedtime routine that allows for a wind-down, the last hour before bed should be calming and restful with quiet activities such as a bath and time for stories. Download a good bedtime routine here.
Though it may take a few days (or nights) of effort, establishing a good bedtime routine at this early age will help your child be bright, alert and ready to learn important life skills.

If you are having problems settling a baby or toddler into a sleep routine then please contact a professional for correct advice and sleep training.

It goes without saying that young babies and sleep deprivation of new parents goes hand in hand - and I will address meeting the sleep needs of parents in a later post. 

Caffeine - the acceptable addiction?

The other day I tripped when walking down the street and landed on my knees - very hard! After a weekend of constant pain and lack of sleep, I went to the doctor's (and as is typical in France) came away with a long prescription of various drugs to 'help' the pain and recovery.

To my interest one of the drugs proudly stated it was a mixture of paracetamol, opium and caffeine. (I'm presuming the caffeine is to counteract the opium.)
Normally when caffeine is present in medications, it is hidden away in small letters on the info sheet and you have to use a magnifying glass to find its listing! So to find it in large letters on the front of the bow was very unusual.

Now, I've not properly drunk caffeine for years (since I was about 18) as the doctor thought that my 6-cans-of-diet-cola a day habit might possibly be a cause of my insomnia, and there was I thinking I was being healthy because it was 'diet'.
Fortunately I did not really like coffee anyway, and the cola was surprisingly easy to give up. It was the tea that was difficult. I really love tea, still do in fact. If I'm up really early - maybe because I have a flight to catch, I may still sneak in a cup of tea but these are very rare occasions.

Nowadays I don't really think about caffeine. Sometimes the question will raise its head, such as when I moved to France, where it seems that everybody drinks coffee. Fortunately there are plenty of other options available. When I first gave it up there were only a few herbal teas available and decaff coffee, now there is a whole range of flavours and tastes to choose from Rooibus is one of my favourites, followed by fennel tea.

People ask me if I miss it, I do not really, and one lady spontaneously threw her arms round me and gave me a hug as she felt so sorry for me that I could not enjoy a morning cup of coffee.

So here's the rub - people need a morning fix of coffee because they are , heartburn addicted to it. Caffeine causes a little high immediately after consumption and then as its affect wears off it causes a slump, so reaching for another cup of caffeine restores the feeling of a high. If you were to completely come off caffeine your body would not need a morning 'fix' anymore.

Caffeine in moderate quantities has been shown to have positive health benefits such as protection from coronary disease, Parkinson's, diabetes and some cancers however an excess causes stress to the body such as osteoporosis, stress, heartburn and other stomach disorders. Caffeine's biggest downfall is that excessive consumption leads to insomnia which, in turn, leads to many other health problems such as diabetes, heart problems, weight gain etc. As well as triggering insomnia which in turn adds further stress.

The recommendation is that between 200 and 300mg a day is a safe level, over 500mgs can start causing health problems.
The problem with this statistic is that the amounts of caffeine in drinks and food varies widely, so you need to keep an eye on how much you drink. Remember that it is not just in tea and coffee but also in green teas, colas and some other soft drinks, chocolate and of course energy drinks.

So if you are having trouble sleeping, is caffeine dependency your problem? Like any drug, coming off caffeine can cause withdrawal symptoms including headaches, sleepiness, lethargy, flu-like symptoms, muscle aches and depression. Try reducing caffeine bit by bit, cutting out a cup or two of caffeine at each stage or swapping high caffeine drinks for ones lower in caffeine and, best of all, stop drinking it at least 6 hours before bedtime. If you suffer from withdrawal symptoms remind yourself that they are only temporary and will diminish.

If you would like to know how much you are drinking then check out this list.

Good luck and sweet dreams.

If you would like more help with achieving overcoming insomnia and other sleep problems then please contact me at charlotte@charlottewelply.com and we can set up a free introductory coaching session.

Tips to improve your beauty sleep!

Everyone has heard of the term 'Beauty Sleep' and there has been scientific research to show that sleep deprivation will impact your physical appearance.

I remember my Grandmother telling me that an hour's sleep before midnight was worth two after. I'm not sure how true that is, however there are a few ways that you can further boost your physical looks while you are sleeping, how great is that?
Great results - minimum effort!

Feet and hands - While working in childcare, I needed to wash my hands frequently throughout the day, leading to dry, chapped hands. I'm sure there are plenty of other professions that cause your skin to dry out too. Before going to bed rub a generous amount of cream (or oil) onto your hands and feet and then put on a pair of cotton socks and/or gloves. Really be generous with the cream as over night it will sink into your skin and when you wake your hands will be soft and ready to face another day.

Hair - If you treat yourself to a deep conditioning treatment at the hairdressers then the treatment can only be left in for a short while, whereas if you put a treatment on at home, it can be left on for several hours overnight. There are plenty of hair serums that you can buy especially for this or you can try making one of your own. Make sure you cover the pillowcase with a towel before going to sleep.

Face - Of course one of the best ways of having healthy looking, glowing skin is to eat well, drink several glasses of water a day and, of course, get plenty of sleep but if you suffer a kin breakout then try here for some simple remedies to help clear your skin overnight.

Skin - when having your pre-bed bath, take the time to dry bush your body first to remove all the dead skin cells. Then after your bath, massage some oil or an oil based product into damp skin to keep in the moisture. Even better - how about using one with lavender essential oil to help you drift off to sleep.

So why not try one or two of these suggestions to help boost the power of your beauty sleep! 

Routines - how they can liberate you

I've been having thoughts along these lines in different areas of my life for a while now, and would like to share how they help with sleep too.

In a former life I used to work with parents, helping them improve their children's behaviour and one of the most common problems was that there was little or no routine in the house. Bedtimes and wake up times were erratic, mealtimes were whenever someone felt like cooking, in fact the only routine seemed to be around school (if there were school aged children in the home) and weekends ended up as one long blur.

When I asked these parents why there was no routine the common response was that they wanted to be 'spontaneous' 'live in the moment' and 'have fun'. There was also a popular theme of having a strict upbringing and wanting to be different with their children. However having no routine meant that the children were insecure, not sure what was happening and this displayed itself in their behaviour. I often found myself explaining that if you had no routine you couldn't be spontaneous, throwing in something different to do just added more chaos to the mix. Conversely if you have a good routine going, then saying to yourself one evening 'Let's jump in the car and go to the beach' is spontaneous and a fun and different thing to do because it is not the norm. It makes it more fun and more special and a brighter memory.

So what does this have to do with sleep?

Our brains and bodies need a structure to work round. For an adult the most obvious and defining point of this structure would be being asleep and being awake. then work and mealtimes, after that it is your free time and how you chose to spend it.

However - if your sleep times keep changing or are erratic then this begins to throw the whole routine out. If you are constantly changing your sleep times your body does not know what is happening, it is confused and doesn't work as well. Just like the children being cranky and displaying difficult behaviours when there is no daily routine.
As discussed in previous posts our bodies need triggers and reminders that it is time to sleep or time to be active, which is why good bedtimes routines can help adults as well as children. It is why shift workers have such problems sleeping as they are constantly changing their body rhythms.

I used to fight long and hard against the concept of any daily routine, especially in regards to sleep. I would tell myself that it was impractical to have a regular bedtime and wake up time, if I was actually sleeping - why wake and stop that. When on a week's holiday I could quite easily stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning reading and then wake up mid-morning, have a nap in the afternoon (because I had gone to sleep late) and go to sleep even later the next night. Within a couple of days my sleep patterns would be out the window and I would be cat napping when ever and where ever, but not getting a good night's sleep. The end result was that I would go back to work feeling exhausted, despite having had all that extra time to sleep!

Last year I took a good hard look at what was going on and decided to redefine my sleep routines. Though it was hard to admit, I am no longer a teenager and all night parties two or three times a week just don't happen any more!
So I looked at my work schedule, took into account my night owl tendencies and came up with a plan that I would get up at 8.30am at the latest. Every day. It seemed really tough for me at first but it has worked. A couple of days a week I need to get up earlier for work but I tell myself this is the exception, not the norm. On the weekends and the days I work from home the alarm is set for 8.30. It is easier to set up a regular getting up time, than a going to sleep time.

I won't lie and say it was easy. There were times I longed to stay in bed and sleep some more. It wasn't quick either, but I have stuck with it and it is paying off. My sleep has really improved!

I now get tired in the late evenings and actually want to go to bed (depending on how busy the day has been it varies between 11 and midnight). Though I do wake in the night, it is briefly. I now tend to wake before the alarm - something that I thought I would never say, and have some time in that nice drowsy state that used to happen after a lie-in, so I'm not missing out on that. The urge to nap has decreased and if I nap now, it is usually after an early start. I still have the occasional bad night, but it is now once every couple of weeks rather than several times a week.

The strange thing is that I now don't feel as if I am depriving myself of anything. I really thought that would be a problem (and in the early days it was hard) but as I am sleeping in more of a block, I wake up more refreshed and am able to achieve more and do more with my day.

The added bonus is that if I do pull a late night because of a party etc, it feels more special, like something spontaneous and different! There is a difference between going to bed at 3am because I was mooching round the house as usual and going to bed at 3am because I was out celebrating.

So if your sleep patterns are erratic, then I encourage you to take the plunge and set up a routine and see what happens. Remember, if you want advice or support with this, then please contact me, I'd love to help you get a great night's sleep.

Also if you want some new ideas and methods to help you go to sleep then check out next week's free http://www.worldsleepsummit.com/index.html, which I have set up especially to support people with sleep problems.

Sweet dreams!

The drugs don't work.... (well, not in the long term)

Ok, so I have shamelessly taken the title from The Verve classic - please forgive me.

I've know for ages that sleeping tablets don't cure insomnia, at best they help you get some sleep, but will leave you feeling drowsy, foggy, lethargic and not exactly raring to go. After a while your body becomes used to them and they lose their potency, so higher and higher doses are needed, or to change types.

I have used sleeping tablets in the past. Living in the UK these were difficult to get hold of. I'd be lucky to get a fortnight's supply 'to get back into a sleep pattern', however this never seemed to work. After a few years I had this system going with my doctor where he would prescribe me a pack about twice a year, and I would use half a tablet at a time, normally when I'd had a bad run of nights or had something important to do the next day. This didn't really help change my sleep patterns but was enough to stop me going over the edge. This worked well enough for another few years until one day I was in the doctor's surgery, crying my eyes out, absolutely exhausted from sleeping about 2 hours a night for nights on end and being told that he couldn't give me any more tablets as it was against the new Trust policies.
Then, when asking if there was a sleep centre he could refer me to, being told there wasn't and being presented with some leaflets about reducing caffeine and having a bath before going to bed. At this point I hadn't drunk caffeine for about 15 years. I was so angry that my one source of help, the tablets, were being denied me.

Now, when I look at some of the insomnia forums on the web and see people writing up what combinations and doses of drugs they use to go to sleep, I am quite glad that I was never given the option to go down the taking ever increasing amounts of drugs route. It forced me to look into alternative methods to change my sleep patterns.

Last night I was interviewing a friend and colleague of mine, Warren Broad, who is a clinical hypnotherapist, for my upcoming Sleep Summit and he told me why the drugs don't work long term, it was really interesting.

So here comes the science bit -

When going to sleep, your brain slips from being fully conscious into a state of trance, and then into sleep. We often slip into a state of trance during the day without realising it, normally when we are doing something that is repetitive or part of our routine. It is so familiar to us that we don't have to concentrate fully. The example he gave was driving into work. How many times have you got to work and can recall nothing about your journey?

Being in a state of trance is an important part of drifting off to sleep. You have probably been jolted out of this state by a loud noise etc, just as you are drifting off to sleep and have to then take the time to get into that state.

Sleeping tablets work by taking you directly from a state of waking into a state of being comatose, missing out the state of trance. Being comotosed also means that you are unable to dream, which is an important part of sleep. It is the not dreaming that leaves you with this feeling of drowsiness in the mornings, because despite actually sleeping, it has not been a fully restorative sleep. There are also the unpleasant side effects of the drugs themselves such as a dry mouth to contend with as well.

So sleeping tablets can not help long term, as they do not allow the brain to go through the stages needed to drift off to sleep. For most people insomnia is a long term problem and the ability to turn off and drift off has been lost. It is a common complaint for those with sleep problems say they cannot switch of the mental chatter in their brains, and it is the ability to stop this chatter that allows you to go into trance and then into sleep. This is why methods that help you retrain your brain (such as hypnosis and behaviour therapy) have proven to be more effective at helping with long term sleep problems than using sleeping tablets.

If you are interested in learning about methods to help you improve your sleep, then please check out the Sleep Summit here.

At this point I would like to say that there are of course situations where sleeping tablets are the most effective and helpful course of treatment and should be used when prescribed by a doctor. As stated I have used them in the past and been grateful for the sleep they gave me. This article is not intended to replace any medical advice and you must discuss with your doctor first any changes you may wish to make to your prescription. 

Hummingbirds

I have had a couple of conversations with people recently about the whole Night Owl/Morning Lark concept and is it really a genetic thing and is it possible to change and have come across a new term - Hummingbirds. I adore these little birds and loved seeing large flocks of them in Costa Rica. Unfortunately I am not one!

There are people for whom their circadian rhythms are hard wired and they find it difficult to change. Latest studies estimate that 1 in 10 of us is a Lark and 2 in 10 are Owls. The rest hover in-between and can adapt to either situation, the Hummingbirds.

I see this when working in daycare with the young children. Most of the children are Hummingbirds and are lively throughout the day, perhaps slightly quieter first thing in the morning and becoming a little more grisly towards the evening. However you do see outstanding examples of Owls and Larks too.

One little 18 month old is a happy little boy, he arrives in the morning and gets on with his day. He is perfectly sociable and enjoys taking part in the activities and being around the other children. He has his midday nap and when he gets up he is a completely different child, he is far more energetic, laughs, shows his cheeky side, and is generally far more outgoing. It is amazing to watch. With his being so young, his sleep patterns take up most of the day and are standard for a child his age, but watching his temperament and behaviour you can see that he will be someone who comes alive later in the day.

Likewise, there is a little baby of 7 months, who rarely sleeps in the morning. He enjoys rolling around on the floor and playing with the toys. Try and get him to have a morning nap is difficult, put him in his cot and he will cry. You may be lucky to get 15 minutes from him. However he will sleep in the afternoon. it will be interesting to see how this develops but I suspect he will become an Lark.

The Hummingbirds have the advantages of being flexible and adaptable, they can get up early to start a shift, catch a flight etc as well as party till the early hours. The Hummingbird can also adapt more easily to life changes like a staying up late when at college, getting up earlier when starting in the workforce, having early rising children, switching to later sleep patterns when they retire.

I am a hard wired Night Owl and it has been difficult to bring my sleep times forward to Midnight to 8.30am, (my preferred times were 2am to 10am) and at the moment I can not see it getting any earlier. I struggle when on shift patterns and these are only variations of a couple of hours, not a day/night shift pattern such as hospital staff.  The way I cope now is to tell myself that the two days a week that I need to get up before 8.30 are the exception and not the norm. Psychologically that works for me.

Hummingbirds profit well from the modern lifestyle and work well throughout the day. Some Owls and Larks are in jobs that suit their hours but how do you make this work if you are in the 9-5. In reality the best thing to do is to work out your personal timings and when you do things well and incorporate those into your day. These can apply to Hummingbirds too as you may show a slight preference to when you are feeling more alert and when you are feeling more tired.

- You are alert in the mornings? Then use this time to be your most creative, working on projects, compiling reports etc. Then save your more mundane and routine tasks for later in the day when you are feeling tired or sluggish - checking emails, filling in stats forms etc.

- You take a while to get going in the mornings? Instead of staring into space waiting for inspiration use the time for the routine tasks that do not take much effort and save your meaningful and creative work for the afternoons when you are feeling more dynamic.

More and more jobs offer flexible hours and you can also also use these to your advantage.

So which do you think you are - Owl, Lark or Hummingbird?

Lucid Dreams

One of things I love about sleep is dreaming. I've been interested in my dreams since I was a teenager and in fact started learning how to recall them and interpret them at that time. It is a skill that can be easily picked up - just like learning a new language, in fact dream interpretation books are often called 'dictionaries'! I talked about it in this previous post.

As I became better at recalling and recording my dreams, the dreams themselves became more vivid and more real. They no longer are a hazy, shadowy image but clear and bright in my mind. I began to fix things that were anomalies in the dream. Maybe I would be in a boat and the river dried up, so I would create a dam upstream that was holding more water, so that the boat would float again. I often liked to go flying. At first it would be short leaps from tree to tree and as I became more confident I could fly longer distances.Flying over the sea at sunset is a favourite dream, flying up to the clouds and feeling them on my face, or skimming over the top of the waves.

I then read about lucid dreaming, how you could control your dreams and use them for your benefit and advantage - to overcome fears and anxieties, to learn new skills, to become more creative. I thought that sounded great and tried to learn to achieve a state of lucidity. I read up on how to do it and set about applying it to my dreams.

To start controlling your dreams and to achieve lucidity you have to be aware that you are dreaming. The recommended way to achieve this is to have a dream symbol - something unusual that if you see it in your dream then your brain trigger tells you that you are dreaming. A classic example of this is in the film 'Inception' where Leonardo DiCaprio's character has a small spinning top. If it stays spinning then he knows he is in a dream (as in real life it would stop spinning and fall).
I tried this method and a couple of others but none of them appeared in my dreams. I was confused. Then when I was listening to the radio one day, a guest was talking about lucid dreaming and perfectly described my learning to fly story, I realised that I was already lucid dreaming. That I was able to control my dreams. That I was already doing these things, so trying to add dream symbols into the equation was just making something I could already do more complicated.

I have to admit that I haven't done that much with my lucid dreaming. I am very impressed when people talk about creating whole new fantasy worlds and filling them with characters and people. It all sounds a little tiring to me, I guess I'm just lazy. I have used them to play out scenarios, trying to see what the outcomes of certain courses of action would be and that has been useful. I have used them to meet people and have a conversation with them, which has been amusing, mind you I haven't told my friends that I've arranged to meet them in my dreams, it sounds a little creepy. Guess they'll find out now though!  I'm not a great painter or artist but have heard that dreams can be a great source of inspiration for new pieces of work or story plot lines.

I have heard of lucid dreams being used to overcome fear and anixiety, apparently it is really successful at helping people who suffer from nightmares - as having control over your dream takes away the horror.
You can also use your dreams to solve difficult problems and find solutions for things that are bugging you. Simply asking your dream to show you a way to deal with something can provide unusual and creative answers.

If you would like to know more about lucid dreaming and how to start controlling and using your sleep 'down time' then why not join me on a new short, 4 week course that I'm running. The details are here.

Don't think that I spend every minute of my dream life solving problems, overcoming fears and learning new skills. Most of the time I like the unexpectedness of dreams and the bizarreness of things that can only happen in dreams. Yep, the lazy part of me showing up, even in my sleep!

Does the way you sleep show your personality?

Though there have been recent studies into sleep positions and personality traits  (one commissioned by a hotel chain), I believe things are a little more complex than the results claim. For me - I can go through several sleep positions in one night, especially when I was an insomniac, does this make me a mix of all the personality types? Who knows!

So - for a little bit of fun here are the results!

Fetal position
Sleeping curled up on your side.
Said to show a need to destress by reverting back to a stress free time when in the uterus. The more tightly curled up you are, the more stressed you are. Can be difficult to get to know, but very sociable with family and friends.

Yearner
Again lying on your side but more open and you have your arms stretched out in front of you, as if 'yearning' for something.
Said to show a confident nature, with a hint of suspicion. May take a long time to come to a decision but then will not change their minds.

Log
Lying on your side with your ams and legs in a straight line.
An open and sociable person but can be too trusting with others.

Starfish
Lying on your back, arms and legs spread.
Listeners bit so they can give advice, often believe themselves to be king or queen in their environment.

Solider
Lying on your back, straight legs and arms alongside your body.
Reserved and introverted, don't like giving things away. They have high standards of themselves and are perfectionists and can be hard on themselves.

Freefaller
Lying on your front, head to one side, normally with legs spread and arms wrapped round a pillow.
A good listener who is open to new ideas. Tends to be someone who stays in the background. Can feel like life is happening around them and they are hanging on for the ride.

Does your sleep position match your personality? Please let me know!
Remember this is just for fun.

Sweet dreams