PARENTHOOD

by David W. Proefrock, PhD

You used to have lots of patience with your kids, but lately you are snapping at them for little things and you always seem to have so much to do that you can’t spend the time with them that you would like. Maybe it’s just you, but the children seem to be harder to deal with and seem to be getting into more trouble lately. What do you do?

A. You are probably just being too hard on yourself and on the kids. Relax and things will get back to normal.

B. You have probably become too lax in your discipline. Tighten up the discipline and things will quickly get back to normal.

C. Take an honest look at what’s going on in your life. Make changes to reduce or to better deal with your stresses.

D. You are just worrying too much. Don’t do anything different. This is just a phase they’re going through.

If you answered:

A. It will probably help to relax, but in order to really relax you should examine what’s going on in your life and try to better deal with it.

B. This is not the best choice. In fact, more discipline when you are already stressed may make things worse.

C. This is the thing to do. You have already realized that you don’t have as much patience and you don’t have time to do things you enjoy doing. The problem is more likely to be with you than with the children.

D. This isn’t worrying too much. You’ve already noticed that you don’t have as much patience or as much time. You should take these warning signs seriously.

Children may not understand everything that is going on in their parents’ lives, but they certainly react to it. It’s always a good idea to include a good look at yourself when dealing with child-rearing problems.

Dr. Proefrock is a retired local clinical and forensic child psychologist.

Teen Sleep Myths Examined

Not that anyone is really listening, but sleep experts have been shouting from the rooftops for years that adolescents’ sleep needs are different from other age groups and need to be recognized accordingly. One of the major themes based on extensive research is that teenagers are not, to put it in plain English, “morning people.”

Adolescents have their own unique biological clocks in the same way that babies do. Trying to change it is about as likely to succeed as a person wishing to be taller. It may not be likely, but it could happen.

A few months ago, a study was published by Brigham and Women’s Hospital examining parents’ reactions to several statements, each one of them a sleep myth specific to adolescents.

One of the recurring recommendations from experts for better sleep for teens is to abolish crack-of-dawn start times for school. The teen brain simply does not function well when the morning sun is near the horizon.

The prevailing wisdom among parents — 70% according to the study — is that if school starts later, adolescents will just stay up that much later. So starting school later would be pointless.

In truth, numerous studies have established that delayed middle and high school start times resulted in significantly more sleep for teens, with extended sleep in the morning and minimal impact on bedtimes.

The percentage of U.S. high schools convening their first class of the day at 9:00 am or later is 3.8%.

Another myth believed by many parents (74%) is that if teens stay up late on the weekends and then sleep late too, it’s no big deal.

Ah, yes. Many adults remember those days. Sleep ’til noon on Saturdays. Now, accustomed to getting up every weekday at 5:30 am, they couldn’t sleep past 8:00 am if their lives depended on it. The biological clock is on autopilot these days.

But that’s not necessarily bad. As we try to remind ourselves when we wake up for no reason at 6 o’clock on a Saturday morning, wildly varying sleep schedules are not healthful. For teens, getting up on Monday morning as many as 5 (or more) hours earlier than they did the day before is directly associated with all kinds of ills, the least of which is lower academic performance.

What’s the solution? Another myth: melatonin supplements can safely promote healthy sleep for adolescents (and adults). After all, melatonin is natural, right?

Sleep experts say this of questionable safety and a myth, particularly for teens, whose brains are not yet fully developed. Melatonin’s effects on puberty and adolescent development have not been studied. Researchers say melatonin supplements for teens should not be taken without a medical evaluation first. Insomnia may have a medical cause which is being masked rather than treated when melatonin is used. Additionally, OTC supplements are not as closely regulated, so their content can vary widely from one brand to another. Even so, two-thirds of parents believe OTC melatonin is ok for teens.

Kids, parents: sleep well. +

It might seem logical that a bad night’s sleep could contribute to a cranky, bad mood. If it made you less productive at work, you would not be surprised. “Although it won’t happen to me,” you might think, “I could see where it could make it more likely to be in a wreck.”

All of those assumptions are correct (except the part about thinking you can defy the odds against sleepy drivers), and as simple as those sleepless side effects might seem, each one could have extremely serious repercussions. What if the bad mood or the lack of productivity resulted in losing your job? What if the wreck killed someone?

Potentially, there is no such thing as a minor side effect to some health problem, especially if that problem is preventable. Think how often a bad night’s sleep was caused by staying up past your bedtime just to watch a movie. That’s avoidable. Maybe the movie was violent or scary, and it keeps you tossing and turning instead of sleeping. Another avoidable situation.

Some people wish that tossing and turning was the only sleep deprivation issue they had to deal with. Medical science has discovered links to far more serious conditions as the result of chronic sleep deficits.

Surprising as it might seem, not getting sufficient sleep on a regular basis elevates the risk for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and stroke, mental health problems, and even early death.

Most of those might seem logical enough, but what about obesity? How could sleep loss contribute to someone’s weight?

Even scientists think this is a head-scratcher to a degree, but there are definite chemical and behavioral clues that have emerged from research. One study found higher levels of an appetite-stimulating hormone and lower levels of a fullness-indicating hormone in subjects that were deprived of sleep. Outside of the laboratory, other lines of reasoning include the fact that people who aren’t well-rested have less energy; they are less physically active and therefore burn fewer calories. And there’s the simple fact that the longer someone is awake each day, the more time they have to eat.

How crazy would it be if the culprit in many people’s futile efforts to lose weight ended up being, not their eating habits, but their sleep habits.

The bottom line for each and every one of us, whether we’re skeletal or morbidly obese, toddlers, teens, or adults, is that getting sufficient sleep appropriate to our age group (toddlers: 11-14 hours; teens: 8-10 hours; adults: 7 or more hours) is an extremely important element in our overall salubriousness.

Now go to bed! +

WHAT IS BLOOD SUGAR?

Blood sugar is slightly different than the sugar we sprinkle on our corn flakes in the morning. In fact, blood sugar can start out life as bread, potatoes, milk, popcorn, and a host of other foods we don’t usually associate with sugar or sweetness.

Everything we do requires energy, even sitting perfectly still and pondering the meaning of life. The brain is processing your thoughts and performing a myriad of other automatic functions. The heart and lungs are working, as are all our other organs and systems.

The energy needed to keep everything running comes from what we eat and drink, and none of it is usable in the form in which it goes down the hatch. It has to be broken down or digested into components the body can use, one of the main components being glucose, a simple sugar that often comes from foods classified as carbohydrates. The foods listed above in Sentence #2 are all typical carbs. Popcorn simply cannot fit into a cell, but glucose from popcorn can, and thank goodness for that because every cell needs the fuel glucose provides. The brain in particular is a primary glucose customer.

The pancreas is instrumental in monitoring and regulating blood glucose (aka blood sugar) levels, and it does so continuously. When it detects an increase in blood sugar, it pumps the hormone insulin into the bloodstream. Chemically, insulin moves glucose from blood into cells where it can be used as energy. When blood sugar levels are normal again, insulin production goes offline until it’s needed again.

Conversely, if we haven’t eaten in a while and blood sugar levels drop, cells aren’t getting the fuel they need. In that scenario the pancreas releases the hormone glucagon, which sends a chemical signal to the liver to break down stored glucose (called glycogen) and release those hounds into the bloodstream. Blood sugar equilibrium restored.

Of course, all of the above describes what is normal, what is supposed to happen. It doesn’t always work that way. Some people develop insulin resistance, which is exactly what it sounds like. Being less effective, insulin doesn’t trigger glucose absorption into cells. Blood glucose therefore rises, so the pancreas pumps out more and more insulin in a vain attempt to restore order. The name for this condition is diabetes.

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