Help, I can’t get my school-aged kid to go to sleep!

Help, I can’t get my school-aged kid to go to sleep!

By Bren Boston, MD

Help, I can’t get my school-age kid to go to sleep!  If this sounds familiar, then you must be a parent because this is a universal parent experience.  What parents need to remember is that kids are not born knowing how to sleep and they don’t care that sleep is important.  If left to their own devices, kids will not choose to get the amount of sleep that is optimal for their health and brain development.  That is where the ...

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Vagus Nerve Yoga for Sleep

Vagus Nerve Yoga for Sleep

 

By Alicia Maher, MD

One issue that can make sleep so difficult is that of sympathetic nervous system activation. The sympathetic nervous system tells us to fight, flight or freeze. Obviously helpful when you need it, but we rarely do. And being in this sympathetic state makes it harder for us to engage in the parasympathetic side of the nervous system that controls the activities of resting and digesting. This explains why you might have trouble sleeping and relaxing, and ...

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7 Health and Fitness Benefits of Sleep

7 Health and Fitness Benefits of Sleep

 

By Anne Price

Growing up, I thought my mom was “Wonderwoman” — a Greek version of Linda Carter who could also cook. She started her day at 6am and would go-go-go, non-stop, all day long.  “I only need five hours of sleep”, she would say, as she was sweeping the floor, readying us for school and boiling something for our dinner before she’d even had her own breakfast. Did you know that only 1% of the population can operate ...

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Why Do We Sleep?

Why Do We Sleep?

Sleep is important.

That, we know. We also know that we should be getting eight hours of sleep at night. But why? What makes sleep so important, and is it really worth a full eight hours?!

Research would say yes:

It’s strange, when you think about it, that we spend close to a third of our lives asleep. Why do we do it? While we’re sleeping, we’re vulnerable—and, at least on the outside, supremely unproductive. In a 1719 sermon, “Vigilius, or, The Awakener,” ...

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Insomnia – Is your over-thinking and over doing getting the best of you?

Insomnia – Is your over-thinking and over doing getting the best of you?

By Edison de Mello, MD, PhD

A good night sleep is essential to clear thinking, more and deeper compassion towards yourself and others, less engaging of the mind and more heart-felt connections and hence better health.

I wanted to reprint an article on insomnia I wrote 4 years ago. Nothing much has changed since then, just more and more medication on the market trying to make you believe that the way to better sleep is through ...

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