Strollerderby : sleep deprivation

Dad Dies 15 Hours After Daughter's Birth

Amy Kuras — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:29:00 GMT

This is one of those stories that made me want to grab my family and hug them hard. Drew Pearson, who was 27 years old and had just welcomed his baby daughter the day before, was killed in a car accident while running errands the morning after his daughter was born.

Most of us remember that first night in the hospital with your new baby. You are shellshocked with the new responsibility you have just taken on, not entirely sure what to do with this little person, and unable to stop staring at this beautiful little being you have created. One thing you’re likely not doing, is sleeping.

A sleep-deprived Pearson’s car slammed into the back of a slow-moving semi. His wife discovered something was wrong when she called his cell phone with an update from the morning pediatrician visit and finally got an answer from a staffer at another hospital. Finally the hospital social worker where she was came in to tell her her husband was dead. They had been married two years.

Before he left the hospital that morning, the new family got a few pictures of Pearson with his daughter. One of them is now blown up over the little girl’s crib, and his wife, Emily, says her daughter seems very drawn to them.

Family and friends held a fundraiser for Pearson’s wife and daughter. He was an instructor in the PGA golf management program at Florida Gulf Coast University and managed a nearby golf course. That’s why I am writing about this – not to bum everybody out, but to let people know. I know there are plenty of more tragic things in this world, but I think everyone who is a parent would feel their hearts torn out by this story.

Bedtime: Does Your Kid Have One?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Do your kids have a regular bedtime, like Sasha and Malia Obama? (The first kids, aged seven and ten, are in bed by eight p.m., according to reports.) Or do they just keep going and going, exhausted little energizer bunnies, till late into the night? Growing up in the freewheeling 70s, I remember being smug about my family's lack of set bedtimes -- and I remember falling asleep in school all the time. In fact, my bedtime-free childhood seemed less and less fun as I got older, leading to mornings of scrambling out of bed, late as usual, and arriving at high school (college, work) with wacky hair and bleary eyes.

Most research now indicates that kids -- even tweens and teens -- need far more sleep than they get, and that their sleep needs don't change much as they grow up. Most adults, too, are chronically sleep-deprived, getting far less than the eight recommended hours (the number for school-aged kids is ten hours, for young teenagers at least nine).

As one pediatric sleep expert said in a recent column in the New York Times by Dr. Perri Klass, the problem comes when people underestimate their own sleep needs, and those of their kids:

“It’s a bell-shaped curve,” she said, with just 2.5 percent of the population needing significantly less sleep than average. “The problem,” she went on, “is that 95 percent of us think we’re in that 2.5 percent. You should assume until proven otherwise that your kid needs that much sleep.”

It's these night owls who end up nodding off during circle time, first period math class, and, later, morning meetings. So how to fix the problem? Set bedtimes, such as in the Obama household, are a good idea, according to researchers. And we all know, or should, to keep the TV out of the bedroom (for kids especially, but it's good for parents as well). Beyond that, simply understanding and trying to account for a child's changing sleep needs and routines can be extremely helpful. Teenagers' sleep needs scarcely change, but their circadian rhythms undergo a shift that pushes them -- biologically, not just through their lifestyle demands of homework, facebook, etc. -- toward later and later bedtimes. Some researchers are now calling for later high school start times to allow these weary teens to at least get some decent sleep -- but it seems unlikely to happen, especially in an era when many are pushing for more and more schooling, period.

Having grown up in a household bereft of healthy sleep habits, I'm trying to instill a slightly more organized routine for my kids -- the toddler's asleep by eight, the teen by eleven (still not enough sleep, but better than she would do on her own). What do you do in your house to ensure that everyone gets enough rest?

More by this author:

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California Daycare Closed; Worker Was Mocking Kids' Genitals

"Angels in Waiting" Apparently Still Waiting

Bad Science: How The Autism Vaccine Scare Snowballed

Tired Toddlers Might Drive Moms to Yell --or Vice Versa

Amy Kuras — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:39:00 GMT

Which came first, the exhausted parent or the screechy parenting style that can accompany that level of tired?

That's the question raised by an Australian study that found mothers who yell or hit their kids are more likely to have toddlers with sleep difficulties.

Pediatrician Harriet Hiscock studied 4600 families and found that children were twice as likely to have sleep problems that persisted though the toddler years if their mothers had a hostile parenting style characterized by yelling and smacking than a more warm demeanor.

Children with chronic health problems were also much more likely to have sleep issues.

Let's be honest here though – does anyone parent optimally when they are exhausted? I know for me, combining my three-year-old's (age-appropriate) defiance and stubbornness with the fact her newborn brother has me up three to four times a night means Crabby Mommy makes an appearance more often than I would like, and the same was true when it was her keeping me up frequently as a teething, clingy toddler.

I've managed not to smack, but yelling? Happens more often than I'd like, no matter how warm and loving I am the rest of the time.

I think if anything the two feed on each other – parents who are typically more hostile may have kids who are nervous and unsettled and thus sleep worse, while even the sweetest parent may come unhinged if their little darling has them up several times a night. And those sleepless toddlers are no picnic either.

"It's always a cause-and-effect argument and you can't really conclude from this which one occurs first," Dr Hiscock said.

Drug The Little Buggers To Sleep

Brett Singer — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

You are feeling sleepy... sleeeeeeepy.... But if you're not, here! Take this!

The last time I remember hearing about Melatonin, it was the mid-90's. I was taking a trip to Scotland and was told to take some in order to sack out on the plane. In my case, it wasn't terribly helpful; I took a pill, couldn't nod off, and arrived in Edinburgh feeling like I'd been hit by a truck (or eaten a plate of haggis, which is almost as bad.)

Apparently Melatonin is back, and now it's for your kids. Strollerderby blogger Cole Gamble contributed this personal essay discussing how much Melatonin helped his daughter get a good night's sleep. The brilliant and talented Babble commenters chimed in with some of their own stories here. It wasn't that long ago that some pediatricians quietly suggested giving kids a little Benadryl to get them to sleep through a long plane trip. And before the FDA issued warnings about whether or not the cherry-flavored cold meds we all grew up with actually did more harm than good, many parents (this one included) would happily give little ones a capful; the fact that the stuff was sleep-inducing was just a nice side-effect. Then a bunch of baby cold meds were pulled, although not for safety reasons - some parents were overusing them. Despite the lack of stated danger, usage dropped off, at least among people I know: any suggestion that you are "drugging" your children tends to make people squeamish.

Then there's this WebMD blog post, with the provocative title "Is it wise to drug your kids to sleep?" The blogger, Dr. Steven Parker, seems to be saying both yes and no, depending on your situation: there are cases where children with ADHD or Autism have trouble sleeping and that affects their ability to function during the day. In those cases, a little "help" getting some shut-eye might be good, even doctor recommended.

The real juicy stuff is in the comments. For example, in response to someone who suggests that some of the commenters may not have read the article as closely as they might have, one user writes: "I, have not missed the point. Reading the responses of some of the posts THEY have missed the point." One commenter describes a child that appears to have become Damian from The Omen due to lack of shut-eye. A lot of the parental vituperativeness comes from the implication that they are being accused of "drugging" their children. It does seem like a strong word to use when Melatonin is considered a supplement, not a drug. Still, anytime you give a child something to ingest other than food and drink, it's probably a good idea to do your homework and make sure it's safe.

But what homework is that? Is a doctor's word enough to satisfy you, and should it be? Hopefully you trust your doctor or other health care professional (an acupuncturist, as in Cole's essay) enough to believe them when they say something is safe for your precious bundle to take. But we all know that doctors can be wrong sometimes.

Personally, I'm willing to try anything on myself if someone I trust has recommended it. This once resulted in my taking a pig pancreas pill (no, really) given to me by my former acupuncturist; I got a little bit ill and stopped taking it. I'm more cautious with my kids. Then again, if it really helps, where's the harm, right?

image: Amazon.com

Springing Forward Makes Mommy and Daddy Cry

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:58:00 GMT

Like taking candy from a baby, easy but oh so very mean. Taking sleep and time away from busy parents is a cruel trick of Daylight Savings, even with the energy saving benefits and more light in the evening results.

It's well-established most parents are sleep-deprived on some level especially in that first year of baby's life.

Apparently, the trouble with changes wrought by Daylight Savings Time go beyond insufficient sleep for a few days...

The trouble caused by switching the daylight hours forward so that one has more light in the evening, has a deleterious effect on one's body clock. You can move all the stylish wall-clocks forward all you like, but your circadean rhythms will be screaming at you that it is still Winter.

Add the usual degree of parental sleep deprivation and it's enough to want to consume a melatonin smoothie the size of Manhattan and feed the nice children some special medicine.

We need sleep, people! Daylight Savings is an enemy to busy parents everywhere and it must be stopped!

Babble Talk: Don't Make Me Stop this Car!

editors — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Sarah Irwin admits to moments of rage over a wailing infant at 3am in her essay, Anger Management. Irwin brought (non-physical) parental anger to the surface and many of you were thankful for an opportunity to say, “Me too”. While every one of you are in agreement that anger can go too far, many said that stifling it was the bigger problem. Join in the thought-provoking (and thoughtful) discussion here. - April Peveteaux

I Think I Going To Post On Pregnancy Memory Loss--Did I Do It Already?

Kelly Mills — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:28:00 GMT

In general I hate to concede anything to "pregnancy brain"-- it reminds me of when you are in a fight with someone and they ask if you are on your period or something. But some researchers just did a study on memory loss during pregnancy, and they found that "pregnant women do experience a slight loss of memory--and in many cases, the forgetfulness continues after birth." It seems that the memory loss is subtle, but most pronounced on new or unfamilar stuff, like why you thought getting pregnant was a good idea in the first place.

So what causes this little knocked up amnesia? Researchers don't know, but it could be hormonal or the fact that you have a teensy weensy lifestyle change that might cause you to shift a little in your steel trap mind. Sleep disruption and preoccupation with baby life could be factors. I'm definitely voting for sleep loss as a big culprit. The study also found that the memory problems can persist for up to a year after the birth of your angel, and maybe beyond but the research didn't go past the one-year period. Ah, whatever you were trying to remember probably wasn't important anyway.

New Cure For Sleep-Deprivation On The Horizon?

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:29:00 GMT

For the nine months I nursed my twins, I lived in an almost constant state of sleep-deprivation. And I tried everything I could think of: caffeine, showers, the old-fashioned, self-administered series of slaps to the cheek. I could have used the help of researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, who recently announced they reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys with a chemical naturally occurring in our own brains.

Orexin-A (also known as hypocretin-1) is a peptide that regulates sleep. People with normal amounts of this peptide are able to stay alert and awake. Sleep-deprivation prevents the brain from secreting the necessary levels of Orexin-A, which causes a drop in cognitive functioning. But monkeys who were given Orexin-A after being kept awake for up to 36 hours performed similarly on tests as monkeys that weren't sleep-deprived.

Researchers haven't announced when this discovery might translate into an actual medical treatment for sleep-deprivation in humans. But I am encouraged by the nasal spray delivery system they used with the monkeys, which sounds a lot easier than dissolving amphetamines in coffee and shooting the whole mess directly into my eyeballs, which is pretty much the only thing that worked for me before.

Putting The Baby To Sleep

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:33:00 GMT

Let's say that you are a doctor and want to make a quick buck by writing a book. Let's say that you want to pick a problem that all parents are desperate to solve. What would you choose?

Lice? Icky, but not universal.

Potty Training? Good, but only if you call it "toilet learning" and have some new fangled approach.

No, what you need to do is write a book about sleep.

All new parents worry about if their baby will ever sleep like a "normal" human being. Yes, there are the rare newborns who sack out for 12 hours every night from the moment they are two days old. These newborns are as hard to find as unicorns, however.

Regardless, sleep and the lack thereof is the one thing that makes all parents nuts enough to buy any book that offers the slightest hope. But if it's a problem that effects 52 percent of breastfed babies, as Dr. Jodi A. Mindell suggests, maybe a book is not going to be able to rewire the brains of a majority of infants.

To Sleep: The Impossible Dream

Amy Kuras — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:38:00 GMT

Is there a more fascinating topic among parents than sleep? We talk about it the way we discussed sex in college: who's getting it, who isn’t, with whom, where, and how they are going about procuring more of it.

This post on Dumb Little Man (one of my new favorite things on the whole Internet, many thanks to Jessica) talks about the top 10 ways to get better sleep.

Lots of them make sense: don’t go to bed unless you're actually sleepy, for example. My favorite is not to look at the clock during the night. I am a huge believer in this –if I don’t know I didn’t go to sleep until 2 am, then I don’t dwell on how I only had four hours or whatever the next day. Denial, my friends, it's powerful.

However, I would point out some glaring errors in his suggestions. Like these :

Don’t have kids. Seriously, if you care deeply about sleep and need like ten hours a night (hi, husband!), adjusting to parenthood is going to be just horrible for you. It doesn’t stop with babies either – my three-year-old seems to forget how to stay asleep every six months or so. And with adding a second to the mix in a couple months here, I have pretty much decided I just won’t ever sleep again.
Don't be pregnant. None of the damn pregnancy books mention insomnia as a side effect of pregnancy, but when I mentioned to my friends during my first pregnancy that I could not sleep, like, ever, they all nodded in recognition. The hell? I'm normally the kind of sleeper who would not be awakened by a train driving through my room, but pregnancy has me fully awake several times a night.
Don't choose a snorer for a partner. Kicking the crap out of your spouse several times a night to get them to wake up and roll over is no fun for anybody. If you've failed to observe this rule, prepare to be all Ozzie and Harriet and sleep in separate rooms if one of you is sick or pregnant.

How about you? What's your surefire sleep cure – or like most parents, have you just given up on a solid eight hours?

Weekly Check-Up: Now Eating Fat Makes You Sleepless

Kelly Mills — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:01:00 GMT

Since I posted earlier this week about how not getting enough sleep can make kids gain weight, this study on how eating a high fat diet messes with sleep cycles caught my eye. Makes you think about the little chicken-and-egg action happening here. Rats fed a diet with 45 percent of the calories coming from fat spontaneously showed disruptions in the sleep-wake cycle. So researchers are loking at how eating a high fat diet contributes to weight gain and less sleep, which contributes to eating more high fat food, which results in more weight gain and good lord let's hope it stops at some point because now I'm tired and hungry.

See, here's what's interesting about this: Guess what the rats on the high fat diet did during what was once sleep/rest time? They ate more high fat food. The lead author says, "We found that as an animal on a high-fat diet gains weight it eats at the inappropriate time for its sleep/wake cycle -- all of the excess calories are consumed when the animal should be resting. For a human, that would be like raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night and binging on junk food." Yep, vicious cycle, also known as "Midnight twinkies beget midnight twinkies."

Lack of Sleep Makes Kids Fat

Kelly Mills — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:01:00 GMT

Remember when every day brought another childhood obesity stories? Now we are getting lots of "kids don't get enough sleep" stories, and here's one that links the two in perfect union. Yes, kids who don't get enough sleep are more likely to gain weight. Kids between the ages of nine and twelve who got less than nine hours of sleep got fatter. Hold on: I just want to pause on the idea of nine hours of sleep. Mmmmmm.

Anyhow, is it because kids who are tired are less likely to play outside and participate in physical activities? Is it because they look to soothe their sleep-deprived crankiness with food? Maybe so. But one researcher says this too: "What may be more significant is the effect sleep has on the secretion of hormones that regulate fat storage, appetite and glucose metabolism... Not enough sleep can change carbohydrate metabolism and cause impaired glucose tolerance, which can affect weight." Okay, there's yet one more reason to make sure we all get enough shut-eye. And hello, can we get a later school start time please?

Turn Back the Clocks (Check!) Turn Off the Kids (How?)

Madeline Holler — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:07:00 GMT

Like honeymoons and recreational drugs, the annual setting back of clocks is wasted on those who don’t have young children. Remember how nice it was to wake up at 8 o’clock on that one Sunday morning in the fall and think, “Wait! I can sleep another hour, guilt-free!”

But with kids, oh, kids, they just don’t care about conventions like clocks and daylight savings time and desperate, weepy fights for more sleep. More sleep! No, the kids just wake up when it feels right (and it always feels right), and they want your company! Yours! Not Daddy’s (or if you are Daddy, then not Mommy’s … it’s always you!). They want you to show off your skills at milk-pouring, or pancake-making, or hug-giving – but not in bed, on the couch! Wiggling under a blanket! With annoying cartoons on! Or worse, a Little People’s flap book to read over and over and over again! And who cares about some annual habit of turning 8 o’clock into 7 or 7 into 6, they think, “it’s time to get up and you’re getting up with me!”

So, if you’re like me, you won’t worry about resetting the clocks tonight. You haven’t set an alarm in years. In fact, you never fear oversleeping, because your kids are half-human, half-farm animal and they wake up before dawn, every dawn, crowing loudly.

Night Owl Kids Are Suffering

Kelly Mills — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:03:00 GMT

Oh, we working parents are so mean and selfish. It turns out that many folks who get home from work late are pushing back their children's bedtimes so they can spend time with them. While this story is tied to New York, it's a phenomenon I've seen here on the other coast as well. There's mention of a couple parents who don't get home till 8 p.m. and keep the kids up till 9 or even 10. And of course, we've documented that lack of sleep in kids has been linked to behavioral problems, obesity, hyperactivity, cognitive issues, and we'll probably find out soon it's responsible for global warming and lead in toys as well. Sigh.

The advice from the expert is to keep an early bedtime for the kids, but to come home early from work a day or two, or make breakfast the family meal if necessary. Hmmm. Okay, could we working parents also start lobbying for more reasonable hours at jobs, and even a later school start time if necessary? Both those would benefit everybody, and I think it's time we looked at some of this crap as a social problem born out of a workaholic society rather than the issue of a few parents who are trying to balance career and family.

Yes, Lack of Sleep Really Does Make You Crazy

Karen Murphy — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:03:00 GMT

Guess what? You know those nights you have, up with the baby several times, or up with a throwing-up kid, or a peeing-the-bed kid? Those nights? Like, for some, every night? They are rewiring your brain! That's right, "people in this state seem to experience a pendulum of emotions, going from upset and annoyed to giddy in moments." Um, yeah. That so would describe my life. Yours, too?

In addition, there is this to consider: "There seems to be a causal relationship between impaired sleep and some of the psychiatric symptomatology and disorders that we're seeing." Well, that explains a lot, don't you think? So we've got, basically, one foot in the crazy house. At all times.

I would explain all this in more scientific terms (amygdala! norepinephrine! medial prefrontal cortex!) but I didn't sleep well last night, sorry, and I'm feeling kind of sad...hey, dammit, I said I wasn't going to explain more...lalalalala, let's all sing now! Besides, you know if you're not sleeping. And, well, hello, you know it makes you kind of crazy. That person who left the baby (in his carrier) next to the car, then got in the car, buckled the seat belt, and then turned around to say something to the baby except there was no baby (the baby being still outside the car), that was you, wasn't it? Or, er, no, that was me. Whatever.

But, lalala, do we really need to know that some people were deprived of sleep and then shown pictures of tarantulas! and burn victims! and their brains were measured for activity, therefore suggesting that not sleeping creates all manner of extra activity in areas usually associated with psychosis? I mean, come on really.

We all know that having kids makes us a little crazy.

Which is what makes us want to have the next one.

Kids Must Sleep Or Pay The Price

Kelly Mills — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:32:00 GMT

This morning my kid wanted to come with me to my other job (teaching exercise bootcamps--it's basically the opposite of blogging) so I got her up at 5:30 a.m. and off we went. Of course last night she stayed up a little late so my sister could read her two chapters of her latest Lemony Snicket book. And I think the night before that we had family movie screening, so it was a late-ish bedtime. I mean, she has an approximate bedtime, but then there's stuff we wanna do, and when some family members get home late and want to spend some quality moments together, we flex it some, and our morning rising time isn't totally consistent... But what harm can all that do?

Turns out, a hell of a lot. I must tell you I read countless studies and articles on studies and parenting blah blah every day, but this piece from New York magazine is possibly the first to motivate me to dramatically change my priorities. Because there's a giant mountain of evidence that losing sleep for kids is tied to worse performance in school. And to poor impulse control. And depression. And obesity. All things I had heard before, but when you put it all together like this in such a disturbing and compelling argument, well, I'm sold. I only wish they included more info on how many hours of slumber kids at different ages need.

My big change? I get that a regular bedtime and rising time, as well as sufficient zzzz's, are crucial for kids on so many levels, and we need to elevate the importance of sleep in our daily routine. We have to make it a consistent routine. We have to up both the quality and the quantity, even if it means making tough choices, like giving up or cutting short an activity (with occasional exceptions, natch.) Part of the problem for us is that the adults in the house neglect our own sleep regularly in favor of work and entertainment and so on. And I think it's only fair we amend that one as well, because I do believe in leading by example. And I tend to get about six hours a night, which isn't enough.

And how do you help kids sleep? Well, you could, um, go pills or cage. Plan B: There's this nice rundown, also from NY mag. And I'll summarize some key points by saying: a regular bedtime in a cool room with no pre-bed television chillout. Naps alone won't cut it. And again: A. Regular. Bedtime. The faux drill sergeant side of me is already getting excited by the idea of a precise, orderly, and enforced routine.

Your Child's Sleep Problems Solved!!

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:41:00 GMT

At long last, your crib-escaping toddler can be restrained! Your refreshing and crucial sleep and hers can be restored! The baby cage... a creation of BabyCage.net will solve the litany of long-term health problems related to ongoing parental and child sleep deprivation. The cage also provides a nice alternative to dosing your child with your drug of choice...

If you're worried about scarring your toddler for life, why not fix up the cage with her favorite stuffed animals and fuzzy blankets? Let's be honest, putting her in a cage is much preferable to mommy yelling her head off at 2am because the toddler won't sleep.

Am I right?

Babble Talk: When Children Won't Sleep

aprilpeveteaux — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:11:00 GMT

Cole Gamble’s essay Saved by the Pill let’s us peek into his world where things got so bad at bedtime, Gamble started drugging his child. Before I start saying how we all shouldn’t judge parenting choices, I have a confession. A friend was having an amazingly difficult time when her 1-year-old still wasn’t sleeping through the night. And I was all like, hmmm, I wonder if she’s going in at night and shaking her boobies over his head? Then I spent the night at their sleep-deprived home and realized that her tyke just liked to wake up and scream at the top of his lungs for, oh, about an hour, so that’s what was happening. Some kids just don’t sleep; it’s the stuff of nightmares, that is, if you were actually sleeping enough to hit REM. So why not do whatever works, even if that means a pharmaceutical solution?

Well, mostly because we’re scared to death of putting any substance into our child, hell, into our pregnant bodies even when it’s really, really necessary. And there will always be someone out there telling you that you’re just not trying hard enough, and they’ve got the one piece of advice that’s going to make your club kid turn into a librarian. I’m all for a gentle solution like melatonin if it gives you back some sanity, but I know you Babble readers have got some other get-that-kid-in-bed suggestions. Let’s hear ‘em!

Sleeping Infants Think, Plot to Take over the World

Madeline Holler — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:46:00 GMT

I suspected this all along. Babies aren’t actually turning off their brains when they are snoozing. They’re thinking. Hard. Hey, it takes some high-level brain work to schedule sleep at random intervals and to ruin Mommy and Daddy’s sex life.

A new study took MRIs of 12 sleeping infants' brains. Researchers then matched up activity in the baby brain with the visual, motor and auditory processing regions of adult brains. They found five resting-state networks engaged in spontaneous activity, meaning, these little buggers were doing some serious thinking. The researchers say “This confirms the concept that talking, singing and rocking the baby is not meaningless as earlier believed, but very good for the baby." Score one for intuitive parenting!

My big question is, how’d they get the kids to sleep in the big scary MRI machine? I wonder how many moms had to squish in next to the subjects and nurse.

Forgetting Kids In Hot Cars

Kelly Mills — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:24:00 GMT

Yesterday I mocked an infant alarm system designed to keep people from forgetting their kids in the car. I figured, "How often do responsible parents do that?" Well, elmomma23 pointed us toward an article on this, and apparently, about three dozen kids die in overheated cars annually. Ugh. I really sat up when I read, "'The biggest danger is that people think they wouldn't do it,' said Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars, a Kansas advocacy organization that tracks non-traffic-related child auto deaths." See, my motto as a parent is "Never say never." In other words, I truly hope I ain't next.

So check it out, and notice how it says that sleep deprivation can be a factor in memory loss. In fact, according to a sleep researcher, "Going 24 hours without sleep or sleeping only four to five hours a night for a week is equivalent -- in terms of impairing your performance -- to having a blood alcohol level of 0.1." Sigh. Apparently I'm at least buzzed all the time. Now I'm going to go give my kid a big hug.

Pillowig: Even Parents With Newborns Aren't This Tired

Kelly Mills — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:24:00 GMT

Here's some well-worn parenting advice when you have your first little newborn: "sleep when the baby sleeps." Of course, this is fine unless your child completely resists your carefully choreographed sleep schedule like the insomniac ninja that she is. Mine slept anywhere but at home: in the store, in the car, in the bar... Yes, I'm kidding on the last one. Anyhow, I suppose I could have used something like this Pillowig so that I, too could have drifted into slumber at a moment's notice, anywhere. That is, if I didn't mind looking like a complete ass. Um, on purpose, that is.

It was invented by Joo Youn Paek, and if you want to write in and tell me how you love your Pillowig, how it completely changed your life, and now you are rested and fresh as a daisy and as an added bonus that strangers on the street avoid you then I'm all ears.

Sleep-Robbing Babies Take Two Months' Worth Per Year

Karen Murphy — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:07:00 GMT

Ah, those first heady days of parenthood, one blending into another, the nights stretching long and lonely while keeping vigil with a baby who never read the part of the manual that states that nighttime is for sleeping. Remember those days? When you drive off to go out for the first time in days or maybe weeks and for a split second you wonder if you left the baby in his carrier outside? Or in the house? So you turn around in a panic, narrowly missing a lamppost in the process, but no, there's your baby, snug and safe in his seat, smack in the middle of the back seat where he belongs? (Or was that just me?)

Sleep deprivation, my friends. It seems to come with the territory of parenthood, the parent's rite of passage. And it's costing us about two month's worth of sleep during that first precious year.

So here's a new one: Competitive Sleep Syndrome. You know, where the parents argue daily about which of them had less sleep the night before? Or they brag to friends (often padding the facts) about how well their baby sleeps. So now there's a name for this! Who knew? Well, I know for a fact that I got way less sleep than my ex-spouse when the children were infants; after all, lacking breasts of usefulness to a hungry baby, he was able to roll over and go back to sleep while I sat and watched old movies with subtitles and the sound turned off. Ah, "quality time" (which often was quite blissful, by the way, but sometimes though was just plain hell).

Sound familiar? Who stayed up with the baby in your house? (Or were you blessed with a baby who slept through the night at five weeks?)(And can I say I HATE YOU!) Spill it, will you? Share your crazy sleep-deprivation stories, c'mon I know you have one!