Expert Advice

Mothers everywhere, would love to know the secret of how to get their children to sleep well. According to a recent study however, the answer appears to be to get a good night’s sleep yourself! Research carried out by the University of Warwick and the University of Basel shows that mothers who struggle to get to sleep tend to have children with the same problem. Analysing data from nearly 200 healthy children between the ages of 7-12 years-old and their parents, the researchers studied the relationship between the parents’ insomnia symptoms and their children’s sleep quality. Around 30% of adults…

Why have a routine? Whether it’s the spinach on their dinner plate, or a big life event like moving to a different school, it is common for children to often fear the unknown. We can’t avoid these scenarios and we wouldn’t want to. When a child knows what to expect, with predictable routine at home, it creates a positive and calm living environment to grow up in, helping them deal with bigger things in life more easily. Bedtime routine Constant nagging or power struggles to get your child to take a bath at the end of the day can be…

It’s 3 AM and I’m lying awake in my bed. The only light in the room is the glow from my smartphone, which I know I’m not supposed to be using this late. At least, that’s what the sleep experts say. My guess is those experts have never spent hours alone in the dark, wide awake with nothing else to do. I open my internet browser, and in the search bar I type the words, “fall asleep.” I close my eyes and hold my breath as the search results load, hoping for a miracle this time around. More than 30%…

The history of humanity can indeed, be characterised as one of injustice, violence and bloodshed. However, we often forget that our history is also one, distinguished by countless discoveries that have each dramatically improved our quality of life. The recent works of Stephen Pinker, Hans Rosling and many others for example, have recently received critical acclaim for convincingly suggesting that we have little reason to be concerned for the future of humanity, when reason, science and the desire for progress characterises much of the past several hundred years. And yet, despite such expansive knowledge, there remains a number of significant questions, which…

  For the past 12 months, my 14 year old daughter hasn't been able to get to sleep before 5am. If left alone, she then sleeps until midday. This is particularly rare however, as she has to get to school by 9am each weekday morning. My research suggests that she may have delayed sleep phase disorder. Do you think this is a possibility? I have desperately tried to get appointments at my local hospital via my GP, but so far, they have refused her an appointment, suggesting instead that she is treated in the local community. Even then however, our…

When you're unable to sleep, the natural response is to do whatever you can to immediately fix it. We are conditioned to respond to problems like not sleeping, with action and “doing” something. Cutting down on caffeine and screen time, putting up blackout blinds, buying earplugs and consuming herbal teas before bed, all seem like proactive and sensible ways to improve your sleep when insomnia strikes. But paradoxically, in the case of sleep, this effortful struggle to control what is not in fact under your control, can end up being the very reason why sleep continues to be elusive. Persistent…

A growing body of research indicates that children who regularly get to bed late are not (as they might have thought) lucky or sophisticated, but rather, set up to fail. “Children’s natural rhythm dictates for them to go to sleep well before adults do... if children are kept up as late as their parents, they’re often being deprived of the opportunity to grow and learn as well as they could have,” Andrew J. Bernstein, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Northwestern University told Fatherly. Impairing a child’s ability to learn, retain information, and regulate their emotions, recent evidence has even suggested that sleep deprivation…