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page 6..........HAVEN'T BEEN
SLEEPING WELL
by Robert Sullivan, Reporting by Anne Hollister
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Adds Kavey: "You never find an Olympic swimmer saying, 'The Games
are coming up, I've got to start getting five hours a night.' No. They
need eight to be at their peak. Same with poets and Presidents.
With more sleep, Clinton would be more decisive, less hesitant."
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FAMILY MATTERS
Deciding to bring the baby into bed with you may help him sleep
better but could destroy your dreams of a solid eight - in part
because of a baby's normal restlessness."A newborn's sleep
rhythms are still developing," says pediatrician Dr. Richard
Ferber. "There are many little wakings." A good night's
sleep usually comes by six months, and even if it doesn't, there
still may be no cause for alarm. Some disorders that occur in adults
- sleep terrors, bed- wetting, sleepwalking, head-banging, body-rocking
- are also common in children, and many of these childhood sleep
problems fade with time.
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Having talked with the experts, I realize it's not a good thing for Caroline
to be raised as a short-sleeper. Luci and I resolve to mend our ways and
set a proper example so that by the time our daughter is a young girl,
she'll be sleeping soundly each night and be well rested for school.
Or will she? If you think there's a lot of talk about baby sleep these
days, try teenage sleep. Last year, responding to studies showing teenagers
were getting too little sleep, and much of it at the wrong time for their
biological clocks, the Edina, Minn., school district agreed to move its
start time at the high school from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. "I hope
it's the beginning of a trend," says Kavey.
Teenagers require more than nine hours of sleep a night to maintain optimal
alertness. Moreover, while they do very well in the evening and early
night, they drag in the morning (like that's a big secret).
A perfect-world scenario would feature a school day beginning as late
as 10 a.m. This isn't going to happen, of course: Parents want their kids
in school during their own work hours.
But the consequences of forcing teens to fits into the wrong circadian
slot can include poor grades, trouble at home and, worst of all,
car crashes.
In a recent study, David Brown of the Center for Sleep Evaluation at
Optima Health in Manchester, N.H., found that 17 percent of 166 high school
drivers reported having fallen asleep at the wheel and 64 percent believed
that sleep deprivation worsened their school performance.
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