Today's #Sleeptember ACTION ITEM --- VOTE TODAY! for Steve Tompa, sleep activist and Scholar of Change hopeful

Walden University is running its annual contest, Scholars of Change, and SleepyHeadCENTRAL would like to ask you, dear readers, to help us to help out a fellow sleep activist friend in his efforts to bring sleep health awareness to families everywhere.

Steven Tompa is a sleep technologist who is also a doctoral candidate at Walden University in Minneapolis, where he hopes to graduate with a PhD in Health Services with concentration in Healthcare Administration next winter.

#SLEEPTEMBER

His particular specialty is pediatric sleep health and it's Tompa's goal to help to inspire parents to seek help for their children's sleeping problems. He speaks before parent groups regularly to drive home the message that sleep, like a healthy diet and regular exercise, is part of the three pillars of health for children everywhere. His efforts matter in a world where sleep is still on the cutting edge of science and the world still doesn't quite understand how critical good sleep is to quality overall health.

First prize is $7500, which Tompa plans to donate to a children's charity. Let's help him make this a reality: Check out his contest entry video, "Dreaming Social Change: The Science of Sleep" here, and make sure you click on the button to vote for Steven!

DEADLINE FOR VOTING IS SEPTEMBER 29!!!

SLEEP STUFF || Books about Sleep

Here are three titles you might be interested in. Please note: These titles have not been reviewed by the curator. Please visit your favorite review websites if you want feedback on them. Titles are listed as suggestions only. If you read any of these books and wish to share your review of them, please contact the curator at sleepyheadcentral@gmail.com. 


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Bright Eyed: Insomnia and Its Cultures [paperback, ePub, PDF]
by RM Vaughan
Category: Nonfiction, Health, Social Science
Publisher: Coach House Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
Pages/Price: 136pp, $14.95 for print edition
ISBN-10: 1770564098
ISBN-13: 9781770564091

From the publisher: "In shutting out shut­-eye in favour of productivity, have we created an insomnia culture?

For forty years, RM Vaughan has been fighting, and failing, to get his forty winks each night. He’s not alone, not by any stretch.

More and more studies highlight the health risks of undersleeping, yet we have never been asked to do more, and for longer. And we can’t stop thinking that a lack of sleep is heroic: snoozing is a kind of laziness, after all. But why, when we know more about the value of sleep, are we obsessed with twenty­-four-­hour workdays and deliberate sleep deprivation?

Working outward from his own experience, Vaughan explores this insomnia culture we’ve created, predicting a cultural collision — will we soon have to legislate rest, as France has done? — and wondering about the cause-­and-­effect model of our shorter attention spans. Does the fact that we are almost universally underslept change how our world works? We know it’s an issue with, say, pilots and truck drivers, but what about artists — does an insomnia culture change creativity? And what are the long-term cultural consequences of this increasing sacrifice for the ever-elusive goal of ‘total productivity’?"

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Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child [audio download or CD] by Dr. Marc Weissbluth
Category: Nonfiction, Family Health, Self Help
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication Date: June 23, 2015
Hours/Price: 16hr 45min, $25.95/free with Audible.com 30-day trial; Audio CD for $12.94
[Download] ASIN: B00E63PEXA
[CD] ISBN-10: 1770564098
[CD] ISBN-13: 9781770564091

From the publisher: "One of the country’s leading researchers updates his revolutionary approach to solving–and preventing–your children’s sleep problems.

Here Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a distinguished pediatrician and father of four, offers his groundbreaking program to ensure the best sleep for your child. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, he explains with authority and reassurance his step-by-step regime for instituting beneficial habits within the framework of your child’s natural sleep cycles. This valuable sourcebook contains brand new research that:

• Pinpoints the way daytime sleep differs from night sleep and why both are important to your child
• Helps you cope with and stop the crybaby syndrome, nightmares, bedwetting, and more
• Analyzes ways to get your baby to fall asleep according to his internal clock–naturally
• Reveals the common mistakes parents make to get their children to sleep–including the inclination to rock and feed
• Explores the different sleep cycle needs for different temperaments–from quiet babies to hyperactive toddlers
• Emphasizes the significance of a nap schedule

Rest is vital to your child’s health growth and development. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child outlines proven strategies that ensure good, healthy sleep for every age. Advises parents dealing with teenagers and their unique sleep problems."

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Sleepwalker: The Mysterious Makings and Recovery of a Somnambulist [hardcover] by Kathleen Frazier; foreword by Mark Mahowald
Category: Nonfiction, Memoir
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication Date: September 8, 2015 - Preorder now
Pages/Price: 240pp, $24.99
ISBN-10: 1634502353
ISBN-13: 978-1634502351

From the publisher: "Every evening, each of us, alone and in the light of our own circumstances, surrenders to sleep—or tries to.

Sleep is nothing if not mysterious. A practice in letting go. A measure of trust.

Growing up the good girl in an Irish American family full of drinkers and terrible sleepers, Kathleen Frazier was twelve when her seemingly innocent sleepwalking turned dangerous. After her brother’s first suicide attempt, Kathleen’s sleepwalking incidents spiraled into a sort of nighttime mirroring of her brother’s waking pain. By day, she was a popular, A+ student, the star of her high school musical. At night, she both longed for and dreaded sleep.

Frazier moved to Manhattan in the 1980s, hoping for a life in the theater. What she got was a run of sleepwalking performances, sometimes with a shocked audience, sometimes solo. Efforts to abate her malady with drinking failed miserably. She became promiscuous looking for nighttime companionship. Could a bed partner save her from flinging herself down a flight of stairs or out an open window? Danger heightened in a city burgeoning with AIDS. Exhaustion stalked her. Through such a dark night of the soul, would she ever find rest, let alone love?

This is the journey Frazier illuminates in her intimate memoir, Sleepwalker. While highlighting her quest to beat her sleep terrors and insomnia, this is ultimately a story of health, hope, and redemption."


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SleepyHeadCENTRAL strongly encourages people with ongoing sleep health problems to approach a medical professional to determine appropriate differential diagnoses and treatment. This post, like all other posts on SHC, is not intended to substitute for medical advice.

See SLEEP STUFF series main disclosure notifications here regarding any products discussed on this blog. 

Health Awareness Campaigns for May

May is...

National Mental Health Month - Because sleep and mental health go hand in hand

National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month - It's hard to sleep if you can't breathe

American Stroke Month  - Untreated sleep apnea can lead to this

Older Americans Month  - Our sleep needs change as we age

May 3-9: Children's Mental Health Awareness Week
Bad sleep habits start at a young age; so do sleep-related mental health problems

May 10-16: National Womens Health Week  - Women need more sleep than men

SHED SOME LIGHT || Guest post: Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD, on later school start times

The Start School Later Movement

by Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD

When I moved to Maryland in 2000, plans were in the works to delay our county’s brutal 7:17 a.m. high school start time. Sleep research was already clear that these hours were unhealthy and counterproductive, and school leaders were leading the charge for change. With my oldest child in seventh grade and my baby in kindergarten. I assumed the problem would be solved by the time my kids were affected. Nearly 15 years later, my baby is in college, and nothing has changed.

Nothing has changed in most of the 15,000 or so school districts around the US either. Education Secretary Arne Duncan may have tweeted his view that later start times are a “common sense way to improve student achievement,” but fewer than 15 percent of US high schools start before 8:30 a.m., the minimum acceptable time for middle and high schools recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nearly 43 percent of high schools start before 8 a.m., and 10 percent before 7:30 a.m.

This inaction shocks sleep researchers and health professionals, as well as many parents who know the grim reality of trying to rouse sleep teenagers before sunrise. For decades, sleep scientists have been telling us why: at puberty, circadian rhythms shift later, not only in humans, but in other mammals as well. Typical sleep cycles begin around 11 p.m. for teenagers and continue through 8 a.m. This means that an early wake-up call (5 or 6 a.m. in many cases) not only allows a maximum of only six to seven hours of sleep, but it also requires students to wake in the middle of deep sleep. 

Since the average teenager needs 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night, it’s no wonder that nearly 70 percent of US high school students get under 8 hours – and 40 percent get six or fewer. In addition, they’re getting this insufficient sleep at the wrong time, sleeping in on weekends or napping after (or in) school, creating a situation that amounts to chronic jet lag or shift work.

This wasn't always the case. A hundred years ago, most schools (and places of business) started the day around 9 a.m. In the 1970s and 1980s, many schools shifted to earlier hours. Back then the importance of sleep and adolescent circadian shifts were little understood, and cost savings of running the fewest possible buses in multiple cycles was appealing. Even schools that didn't run buses often found it helpful to match hours to those of nearby schools. As a result, many students today are required to be in class much earlier than their parents and grandparents had been. 

These changes might have saved bus money, but they shifted costs to students and families. Sleep-deprived teens not only risk eating disorders and obesity, heart disease and diabetes, immune disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and suicide, but they put their safety and that of others at risk by walking to the bus or driving themselves to school on dark, deserted streets. Judgment, focus, and memory are impaired, and risks of tardiness, truancy, and dropping out increase, reducing chances of school success, particularly in disadvantaged children.

When public school times changed, the whole community's rhythms changed, too: Today, "after" school stretches out to four hours (and fills up with activities), leaving many kids unsupervised at the peak period for adolescent crime and risky behavior. Elementary schools often start as late as 9:15 or 9:30, forcing working parents to send young children to before-school care as well as after-care. Families whose children are in multiple school levels often have start and end times that span two hours in the morning and another two in the afternoon. 

Most people now perceive these adaptations as inevitable and normal. And this perception is the key to understanding why schools aren’t listening to sleep research. People who have adapted their lives to current school hours assume that they cannot adapt to changing them again. Fearing that new hours will disrupt commutes, daycare, teacher training, after-school activities, and so forth, they protest shifted schedules vehemently, sometimes to the point that superintendents have lost their jobs. It’s no wonder that school officials find ways to make later school start times sound as complicated and expensive as putting a man on Mars. 

“One of the hardest things you can ever do as a superintendent…is to begin to tinker with the bell schedule,” said Deb Delisle, Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Education. “People go absolutely bananas over that. You can change textbooks, you can change report cards, [but] as soon as you tinker with that bell schedule – whoa, too scary!”

The good news is that finding ways to run schools at safe, healthy hours is not rocket science. Schools have, and continue to, run at many different times around the world, and community life always adapts to them. We now have plenty of success stories providing data that put the many dire speculations blocking change to rest. 

Even the common sense speculation that later hours would just lead teens to stay up even later has 
been felled. In every study to date, students actually go to bed around the same time, and get significantly more sleep, when morning bell times are delayed.

The hundreds of examples of schools that have found ways to run schools at later, healthier hours by prioritizing sleep, health, and learning provide empirical evidence that the challenge to later start times isn’t daycare or jobs or sports or even the cost of running more buses. The real challenges are fear of change and failure of imagination.

Combating these challenges will take more than sporadic local advocacy efforts. It will also take more than sleep research, however compelling. Instead, it will take treating sleep and school hours as fundamental matters of public health rather than as negotiable school budget items.

Once we start viewing sleep and school hours as equivalent to other public health issues like child labor, smoking, and seatbelts, objections to later start times will melt away. Making that happen, however, will require health practitioners, sleep researchers, educators, policymakers, and advocates to join forces, with a common goal of consciousness-raising and collective action on local, state, and national levels.

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Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD, is the Executive Director of Start School Later, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing public awareness about the relationship between sleep and school hours and to ensuring school start times compatible with health, safety, education, and equity.

In case you missed it... LeVar Burton reads "Go the F* to Sleep"

LeVar Burton successfully resurrected his popular
children's literacy program, Reading Rainbow, by way
of a Kickstarter campaign last July.

Actor LeVar Burton recently read, in storytime format, the book, Go the F* to Sleep, which addresses, in explicit language and adult humor, the exasperation that develops when a parent's child cannot get to sleep. The reading took place before a small adult audience as part of an effort to raise funds for Children's Miracle Network hospitals.

See the YouTube recording of Burton's reading here but be fairly warned, the language is NOT safe for work!

You can read about the original 2011 bestseller written by Adam Mansbach here.

The SleepyHeadCENTRAL Monthly giveaway happens tonight!!! Are you eligible? It's free! Don't miss out!

Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways!

The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns.

Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

SHC is proud to offer this adorable helper for parents struggling to help their children banish their fear of the dark:

The Monster Cuff (pictured right) is a soft, washable wristband that children can wear to empower themselves against the things that go bump in the night. From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby:

"Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)"

Need more tips for helping junior to overcome his or her fear of the closet monster or the demon under the bed? Check out this recent post at SHC.

---

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS

The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND WIN THE MONSTER CUFF!

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway THIS FRIDAY! Monster Cuff banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

A READER ASKS || How do I get my daughter in for a sleep study now that she's an adult?

Dear SleepyHeadCENTRAL: 

My 22-year-old has sleep issues.  She did an overnight study in her early teens at a local hospital and presented with VERY disrupted sleep, but we didn't follow up then because we didn't understand. She recently got Medicaid coverage as a young adult. Do you have a suggestion where to start back in on testing leading to diagnosis and treatment?  I have a feeling it's the root of a lot of issues. I am really hoping to get her on this path.. She's adopted, but I have family members with sleep issues; in fact, three of my five siblings use CPAP machines. At least two of them have narcolepsy.  I know it can really impact all facets of your life. -- Anonymous


Dear Anonymous:

You are absolutely right that disordered sleep can really impact all facets of your life! And when a young person with sleep problems grows into adulthood with the same sleep issues (perhaps worse than they ever were), that can lead to a lifetime of problems not only with sleep but with overall health.

Your daughter will need a referral as patients cannot refer themselves to a sleep center but must go through a physician. She should go to her Medicaid primary care physician, explain her concerns and what she would like to do. She should especially emphasize any coexisting health conditions which may be related to her current sleep problems.

A lot can change to a growing body in a decade, and these days there's so much more evidence of connections between poor sleep and chronic health problems. Treating her sleep problems now means she'll very likely be alleviating some her other health issues as well, maybe even preventing some from developing. Not only does that mean improved quality of life for her, but lower health costs down the line.

It will be up to her doctor to determine the protocol that leads to a referral for a new test, but I would be surprised if they didn't support ordering a new study. Medicaid is quite particular about what it will cover and may require a home sleep test first, so be prepared to do this. Home tests were not available a decade ago and have become a popular and inexpensive option for screening likely overnight test candidates.

If she's okay with it, I'd suggest you attend these consultations with her physicians as an advocate; as her parent, you can offer insights into the reasons behind the first test and explain how you didn't know as much about sleep at that time, which can help to explain why she is still having problems. Doctors are usually supportive when their patients demonstrate a support system has been put in place to help them with potential future therapies.

Have a question? Contact SHC here

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || Sleep Disorders 101: Night Terrors

If you are the parent of a child who experiences night terrors, you know these are no ordinary nightmares. It will seem as if your child has suddenly become possessed! Your child, in the throes of a night terror, might suddenly bolt upright, shout and scream in defense and be utterly inconsolable regardless your efforts to calm them. Their breathing may be rapid, their heart pounding out of their chest, and they may be sweating, thrashing around for several minutes until they finally calm down and return to sleep. 

Night terrors can often leave parents nearly as traumatized as it seems their child is during an episode. Usually the child going through a night terror isn't even aware that you are trying to calm them down, and when you ask them the next day about their nightmares, you discover they have absolutely no memory of them.

That's because night terrors are not nightmares at all, but a disruption to sleep that occurs during transitional sleep between deep Stage 3 sleep and lighter REM or non-REM stages. 

Night terrors occur during the first three hours of the night. These passages between sleep stages are smooth, but they can lead to stress responses in the child. Children's bodies and brains are still developing, and changes in growth hormones and other brain chemistry might be at work at this time. Thus, this physical (not emotional) expression of fear, caused by the sudden release of stress hormones into the bloodstream, can panic the child, leading to a full-blown, dramatic episode of terror. 

Anyone who has witnessed a child in the middle of a night terror knows to put the emphasis on the word Terror, as this is an extremely accurate representation of what happens. 

Dreams and nightmares, on the other hand, are the fodder of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and never happen in deep Stage 3 sleep. Consider this: during REM sleep, the body is more or less paralyzed from the neck down as part of the brain's effort to keep one from acting out the compelling content of dreams. If your child is terrified in the night but does not move about, and the episode occurs later in the night, they might be having a nightmare. You also might have better luck consoling them, and they stand a good chance of remember the content of their bad dream in the morning because in REM sleep, visual imagery is processed and remembered. In stage 3 sleep there is no imagery for the brain to process.

The good news? Night terrors are actually normal and do not suggest any underlying medical condition. Kids grow out of them, thankfully, so parents can hope for more peaceful nights as their children age.

Sleep Awareness Events in October (updated)

October 6 through 10 is Sleep Apnea Awareness Week™

The American Sleep Association is campaigning to educate the public about the ongoing risks of living with untreated sleep apnea. Complications include increased risks for motor vehicle accidents, heart attacks, risk of stroke or deadly heart rhythms, decreased physical and/or mental performance, and more difficulty managing diabetes and hypertension. Want to learn more about managing sleep apnea and using PAP equipment? Check out your local chapter of A.W.A.K.E., sponsored by the American Sleep Apnea Association.

October 6 through 10 is Sleep Technologist Appreciation Week

Sleep technologists are those nightwalkers who hook up overnight sleep study patients and record their study data over a 12-hour period, which is then reviewed and filed as a report for the sleep doctor to interpret. They are also a critical educational resource for those suffering from sleep apnea as they are typically the first people to introduce PAP and/or supplementary O2 to patients with severe sleep breathing problems.

October 19 through 25 is National Respiratory Care Week

Respiratory disorders constitute a major challenge in the field of sleep medicine. Professionals in respiratory care (including nurses, respiratory therapists and sleep technologists) who serve the needs of respiratory patients (people with COPD, asthma, musculoskeletal and neuromuscular diseases which impact breathing) also work in tandem with pre- and post-operative teams to ensure patients have unobstructed breathing and ample blood oxygen saturation during invasive surgical procedures.

October 21: Awake, Alert, Alive: Overcoming the Dangers of Drowsy Driving

This public forum will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Conference Center in Washington, D.C. Presenters will review risk factors associated with drowsy driving and address the challenges of driving drowsy among the general population of noncommercial drivers. This event is sponsored by the NTSB and is free and open to the public, with no preregistration is required.

October is SIDS Awareness Month

Part of the impulse of new parents staring at their slumbering infants is not only to adore their new family member but to make sure they are breathing while asleep. Perhaps one of the greatest fears of new parents is losing their newborn child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

According to reports from the CDC, nearly 4,000 infants die suddenly and unexpectedly each year in the US, half of them from SIDS. SIDS is the leading cause of infant death for children between one and twelve months of age.

It is difficult to differentiate SIDS from other Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID); autopsy alone cannot explain these losses without also putting the entire family through an investigative review. What are the differences, then, between the two?

SIDS is defined as "the sudden death of an infant less than 1 year of age that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation is conducted, including a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and a review of the clinical history."

SUID  may be the final determination of death if it arises as an "Ill Defined and Unknown Cause of Mortality;" that is, it could be "the sudden death of an infant less than 1 year of age that cannot be explained as a thorough investigation was not conducted and cause of death could not be determined."

SUID could also be explained by Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB), considered the leading cause of infant injury death. ASSB can be caused by obstructions to the infant's airway while asleep in the form of soft bedding (including pillows and waterbed mattresses); overlay (in which another person's body rolls on or over the body of the infant); wedging or entrapment between two objects (such as a mattress and wall, bed frame or furniture); or strangulation, in the event an infant's head and neck are trapped between crib railings.

The causes behind ASSB are clearly outlined, and SUID serves as the diagnosis when SIDS criteria are not met due to missing information about the loss of the child. In the case of SIDS, however, even when criteria are met, the condition and its causes still baffle researchers and healthcare professionals.

One main effort being made to prevent SIDS is the Safe to Sleep® Public Education Campaign (you may recognize its original campaign name, Back to Sleep®, which launched back in 1994), in which parents are instructed to place their newborns on their backs to sleep and keep crib clutter to a minimum. 

More info: 
Centers for Disease Control SIDS page
Safe to Sleep® Public Education Campaign
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

National Sleep Foundation: "What To Do When Your Child Is Too Scared To Sleep"

"Nap time" by Vladimir Rodionov. CC BY-SA 3.0

Here are some great tips from the experts at the National Sleep Foundation for those parents who are struggling with children who are experiencing nightmares. I would add that children refrain from playing stimulating video games right before bed, as these, too, present intense, scary characters and narratives that could disturb them as well.