Are Your Children’s Brains Getting the Sleep They Need? (Pedcast)

  Who would have thought a generation ago that lack of sleep would be a huge health issue for children? I certainly didn’t but the reality is that many children today struggle with insomnia. Stay tuned and I will tell you how you can avoid much of the insomnia trouble plaguing American children. Photo compliments of Pixabay Musical Intro   Modern Life and Your Children’s Sleep It feels like the world is speeding up sometimes, doesn’t it? Change is coming at you and your family at a blistering pace. Chances are high that compared to your childhood, your children are spending far less time outdoors, hanging out with friends less, and participating in way more structured activities than you did.  They are also engaged with far more technology like video games, entertainment media, and internet-based activities. For many, modern American childhood is changing the quality and quantity of children’s sleep. In fact, the average amount of sleep that children get every night has been steadily decreasing over the past twenty years. And that is a health crisis! As you are about to see, good quality sleep is absolutely fundamental to raising healthy children. As a parent, you just have to get bedtime right for your children. So, in today’s pedcast, we are talking about sleep and its importance to your children.   The purpose of sleep You may be wondering why is sleep so important? It may seem like not much is going on in your children’s brains and bodies while they lay motionless, but in actuality, a lot is happening biologically. Good sleep is your children's gateway to health and well-being.  We now know that the process of sleeping isn't at all random but rather a carefully regulated process controlled by a complex symphony of hormones and physiologic changes. As your children sleep, their respiratory and metabolic rates slow, their body temperature falls relieving a lot of the stress of their daytime life. This gives their bodies time to repair damaged cells and muscles, grow new tissues, hel