Poor sleep can affect the way you walk, according to study 1:09
(CNN) -
I'm really tired.
Really.
I don't think I've had a full night's sleep in the last four years.
What could be causing my sleep problems? You wonder.
I am a mother of two young children, ages 2 and 4, who have never slept through the night except for a couple of months when they were babies.
This creates extreme sleep deprivation for my husband and me.
Lack of sleep affects all aspects of my life, including my mood, weight, and marriage.
My ability to operate at full throttle is not possible without copious amounts of caffeine.
advertising
For all these reasons, I went on a mission with CNN Wellness eight weeks ago to get my family to sleep more.
And thus solve the crisis of sleep that we have.
Sleep challenges run in families
Before starting my mission, it was comforting to know that what happens to my family is common.
It is estimated that 25% to 50% of preschool children do not get enough sleep, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The fact that young children do not fall asleep or do not stay asleep leads to their parents or caregivers having fewer hours of sleep.
This can also lead to behavior problems at school and hyperactivity.
It has also been linked to childhood obesity.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends that children ages 3 to 5 get 10 to 13 hours of sleep a day.
Children ages 6 to 13 need 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night.
How much do you need to sleep?
Depends on your age
CNN Entertainment reporter Chloe Melas (left) turned to a sleep expert to help her family get more rest.
In the photo are her husband Brian Mazza (second from right) and their two children.
As for adults, you should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep.
I'm definitely not sleeping that, not even close.
If I am lucky, my husband and I sleep about three hours before one of our children wakes up and enters our room.
Then we sleep intermittently until 5 a.m., when the two children wake up like clockwork.
I brought my family's sad sleep experience to sleep guru Dr. Marc Weissbluth, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
I have met virtually with him three times in the last two months.
Don't be so hard on yourself
In our first interview, I was feeling sensitive about my home's sleep crisis, but Weissbluth told me not to blame me.
"You may just have been unlucky," he said. "Maybe you did things, unknowingly, that allowed bad habits to develop. And we don't want to blame ourselves for what we did in the past. But going forward, we can always help. children to sleep better ”.
Have you heard these excuses?
“His teeth are coming out”, “it is a stretch”, “it is a regression of sleep”, “he was born being an owl”.
Weissbluth told me to forget about all the explanations that had been given to me so far about children's sleep problems.
This includes "witching hour," that time towards the end of the day when kids get cranky and parents usually blame a long day.
This grumpy hour exists because our children are sleep deprived, Weissbluth noted.
"It may be because they have a fragmented night's sleep," he said.
"If you have an interrupted sleep, then you don't wake up so rested and your body is not so recovered, so in the afternoon you lose control."
Implement an earlier bedtime for children
Children should go to bed earlier and get more sleep.
"If you look at the bedtime surveys for children across decades, not three years, but 10, 20, 30 years, each time it is later. So children have a harder time reconciling the sleepy, in part because her bedtime is too late, "Weissbuth said.
All of our organs require energy that comes from glucose and oxygen.
But only one organ requires sleep, he said, and that is the brain.
"So if the brain doesn't get the nourishment it needs, there will be consequences, both in behavior and in emotions or cognition."
For the past four years, I have tried waking clocks, red night lights, and melatonin, and have even delayed bedtime in hopes that they would be more tired.
What was the dream guru's plan for our family?
Simple sleep rules for the little ones
Weissbluth, author of the popular book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," said that for my 4-year-old it would be to follow his "sleep rules."
Honestly, that seemed too simple for it to really work: get into bed, close your eyes, stay calm, and try to sleep.
If my 4-year-old son followed the rules, he would be rewarded the next morning with a piece of candy or a small toy.
If he woke up during the night, we had to go back to bed in silence, with hugs and affection, but without words.
(We didn't want to encourage him to want to be with Mom and Dad.)
That also meant restricting her privileges the next day, taking away or limiting something she liked (a toy, her iPad, a certain snack) as a result of waking up.
Melas (far left) found that "sleep rules" with a reward system worked for her 4-year-old son.
At first, she wasn't sure she wanted to start a rewards system, but she was desperate to try anything.
My son and I made a poster with the rules of sleep and we stuck it on the door of his room.
We also advance your bedtime by half an hour.
To my surprise, it worked!
In the last two months, except for a few setbacks, you have slept through the night without entering the room 95% of the time.
Hallelujah!
Is the dream winning you?
Try these exercises to avoid afternoon fatigue
Structure and routine help
"Sleep rules work because they encourage behaviors that are compatible with sleep and discourage behaviors that interfere with sleep," Weissbluth told me.
"Usually, when implementing sleep rules, bedtime is moved a little earlier so that the child is in a lower state of neurological arousal. Sleep rules may not work if bedtime is too late. ".
In the case of our 2-year-old son, the main problem was that he used a calming mechanism in which he rocked his body and banged his head against the crib until he fell asleep.
Weissbluth assured us that there was nothing to worry about.
And he also encouraged us to structure his nighttime routine more and to advance his bedtime by half an hour.
We usually just place him in his crib and turn on his boom box because he wouldn't sit still to read a book when he was 1 year old.
But it turns out that she enjoys turning on her sound machine and turning off the light after a few books with her dad.
Our youngest son still wakes up at 5 in the morning, but at least he sleeps through the night with hardly any swaying.
Wow.
Sleep training in adults prevents depression, study finds
Better rest, one night at a time
Still, this is not a foolproof plan.
"There will always be exceptions because of natural events in life that involve you and your children," Weissbluth said.
"It can be a common cold, it can be a school-related event for your 4-year-old that interrupts you. But these interruptions will be occasional and somewhat predictable ... It's more of a bump or annoyance than a major hindrance to being well. rested. "
Are all my family's sleep problems solved?
Not at all.
But we feel more rested and hope that longer sleep periods are on the horizon.
Sleep quality