Marc Weissbluth's Blog, page 15

Lullabies

I remember reading about "white" or "black" (not my terms) lullabies. "White" lullabies supposedly describe good things that will happen to babies when they sleep but "black" lullabies describe bad things that will happen when they cry at night. Is this a valid distinction?

Marc

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Cradle and All

Has anyone seen the new off-Broadway play "Cradle and All?" It was originally titled "The Extinction Method" but this title is now Act 2 of the play. I am curious how it ends.

Marc

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Has Parenting Changed?

When I talk to groups of parents about sleep, some parents state that it is more difficult today to be a parent than in the past. I do not know if this is true but I would like your input on how new challenges today might interact with sleep issues. Here are some observations to kick-start the discussion:

1. There is parenting information overload. With so much information and so many choices, who are you going to believe? Does this lead to a paralysis so that decisions regarding when or how to do sleep training get postponed?

2. More women are working outside the home, more men are working from home or are stay at home dads, and there is more day care and nanny care. How does this effect children's sleep?

3. Are parents more anxious or fearful regarding the health or safety of their children, either because of a real increase in potential harm or world-wide instantaneous media magnification of risk. More anxiety might cause parents to not want to let them cry to sleep better because they fear that crying might harm their baby.

4. Are parents more intrusive/directive/controlling (hovering helicopter parents) because they are competitive for their children so they want to schedule many social or skill building activities which might interfere with healthy sleep habits? Is competitiveness simply another form of anxiety; that is, "I am anxious about the successes of my child."

5. Are parents more anxious or fearful regarding the social, athletic, and academic successes of their children?

Is there any good data to support any of these observations? Please share with us your own observations?

Marc

Second "sleep training" app in the whole world!

Weissbluth Method Infant Nap App.

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Tired brains may enter sleep mode while awake

USA Today, April 29, 2011 on page 4A describes new research in Nature "The brains of rats kept awake past their bedtimes begin to turn themselves off even though the rat is still awake…it's likely that sleep-deprived human brains respond the same way…Long before signs of yawns and trouble keeping focused, it's probably already happening on a localized scale in the brain and have consequences on performance…[Rats kept up four hours past the time they would normally be asleep] were awake but individual neurons in their brains turned themselves off. The shutdown is why the rats did progressively less well on a task…There's no reason to think this does not happen in the human brain…At a certain point, they start saying, I've had enough, I'm going off-line…as you stay awake longer, your cells start to drift into sleep and your performance starts to go down, which could provide an explanation as to why we function less well the longer we've been awake…the message is you need to take sleep very seriously. When you're starting to nod off, it's too late. Even before that, there may be impairment. Respect your need for sleep."

This is the explanation for loss of impulse control (the "witching hour") near the end of the day in children short of sleep and the observation that well-rested children are more focused and cooperative. During the day, having a brain with a full set of neurons (nerve cells) firing when awake is better than a brain with some neurons taking a siesta.

Marc

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