Family The importance of

from Jacksonville Magazine, October 2019, Women's Issue

Flavor A monthly roundup

STAYING SOCIAL

Twelve million seniors (some 26 percent of the elderly population) in the U.S. live alone—a sobering stat considering how important communication is for mental and physical health. Love A Senior Day—a traveling informational event—aims to bring awareness to the capabilities of the elderly and shine a light on the social networks available to them. Locally, the event is celebrated on October 26 at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds, where geriatric medicine doctor Bill Thomas will discuss the cultural stereotype that damage perceptions about elders. 10 AM. u — CASEY CRAIG v

Time for Bed The importance of getting little ones to go to sleep

BY KATIE MCPHERSON

THE KIDS ARE BATHED AND IN PAJAMAS, BUT BEDTIME SEEMS FAR, FAR AWAY. They’re jumping back and forth on the furniture, asking for snacks and water, and squealing with delight at not being in bed yet. You may be ready to yank your hair out, but take heart—most sleep difficulties in children have a simple solution. Sleep is vital for everyone’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. It supports the immune system, resets the brain for the next day, and so much more. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to childhood obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. But because children’s brains are constantly growing and changing, sleep is even more crucial. “Children’s brains are in development and need adequate sleep to do so in a way that maximizes potential,” says Michelle McDonald, child psychologist at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. “Adequate sleep enables learning, memory, and emotional and physical health. Consistent sleep deprivation can imitate symptoms of significant mental health concerns, including difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, irritability, and difficulties with learning.” It can be difficult to tell when your child isn’t getting enough sleep. Children don’t show their tiredness in the same way as adults; in fact, their symptoms of sleepiness can look like, well, the opposite. This, too, is tied to development of the frontal lobe, which regulates behavior. “With adults we know what it looks like: we’re nodding off, we’re yawning,” says Erick Viorritto, board-certified pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Specialty Care. “The signs can be more subtle with kids. It could be difficulty with staying on task, with attention, with impulse control. In children, the signs can be identical to things like

Movin’ On Up Junior Achievement of North Florida—the local branch of a global organization dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy—is making huge strides nationally. The national statistics recently released now place JA of North Florida at number 21 out of 108 Junior Achievement organizations in student reach for the 2018-2019 school year, up two spots from the previous year. “We hit many milestones this past school year, which was the most productive in our 57-year history,” says Steve St. Amand, president of JA of North Florida. “We reached 62,355 students last school year, up 2,916 from the previous year and the most we have ever reached in a single year. u

ADHD. Because their frontal lobes haven’t fully developed, they’re more prone to have that sort of presentation when not getting enough sleep.” The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least 10 hours of sleep for children ages 3 to 5, at least 9 hours for children ages 6 to 12, and at least 8 hours for teens. If you’re working towards these amounts in your household, it starts with setting a bedtime and sticking to it. Always. “A child who goes to bed at 8 PM but stays up until midnight on a weekend, it’s like flying across time zones every weekend,” says Viorritto. Next, avoid caffeine and screens. Both work against the brain’s chemistry to block sleepiness, which makes them public enemies No. 1 and No. 2 come bedtime. “Wired is a good word because children today are much more plugged into tech than years past,” says Viorritto. “The pineal gland, which puts out melatonin, is suppressed by light, so 2,000 years ago when the sun went down and there was no light anymore, all of this worked well. We usually recommend no screens for two hours before bed, and that’s a tall ask, I admit. It’s something parents struggle with, especially with an older child who may need to do their homework on the computer.” Caffeine works in the same way as blue light, blocking the signals in the brain that prep it for sleep. Viorritto cautions parents to check and double-check the drinks their children have for caffeine. For example, sweet tea can be just as disruptive to sleep as soda. McDonald adds that establishing a soothing bedtime routine is key, too. She says many parents stick to bath, brush, book, and tuck their kids in with prayers, songs or lullabies. “Bedtime routines can be thought of like cognitive cues that it’s time to wind down,” McDonald says. “Going through the motions of an established bedtime routine remind the brain that it’s time to begin producing melatonin, the important chemical naturally produced by the brain to stimulate sleepiness. Consistent behaviors create habitual cognitive responses that prepare the body and mind for sleep.” Viorritto encourages parents who are doing their best but just not seeing a change in their child’s sleep to seek the help of a medical professional, and not to fear being sent home with sleeping pills. “If a child has had a longstanding issue with their sleep, sometimes fixing all these things isn’t enough to make it better. In that case, it’s important to enlist the help of a sleep specialist. It’s usually not an issue that requires putting a child on medication, and I often hear parents are afraid to come see me because they don’t want that. We have very formalized ways to retrain the brain to enter sleep based on real neuroscience.” u