My husband seems to be able to sleep through any noise in the middle of the night (especially, it seems, if it’s coming from my son’s room).  Meanwhile, I leap into an action stance at the slightest peep.  I’ve always wondered if I created this by being the alert one at night—his mind is free to screen out noises. Or were we wired that way?

A study highlighted in the New York Times Well blog has found evidence for the second conclusion–an underlying brain difference between deep and light sleepers. The researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital monitored the brain activity of sound sleepers and found that the thalamus regions of these subjects created especially big “sleep spindles”—high-frequency spikes in activity, deep in the brain.  The bigger the spike, the better the sleeper. Scientists think the spindle activity might keep sensory information from passing through the thalamus (this region is kind of like the brain’s filter or communication hub), so the person isn’t woken up.

The new data helps doctors and researchers pinpoint where certain people’s sleep problems might come from.  Insomnia is varied—some people have trouble falling asleep, some staying asleep, and some waking at the earliest light. Small sleep spindles could be the problem with the staying asleep crowd.

A note that might peak the interest of anyone who takes sleeping pills: one of the scientists’ conclusions is that we could be going about sleep medications all wrong. Continue reading »

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Lots of kids are being prescribed medication for sleep problems, even though they’re not approved for use under the age of 18, says a new study in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Researchers, including Dr. Judith Owens of Brown Medical School, collected surveys from 1,300 child and adolescent psychiatrists to find out how commonly their patients report insomnia and what they do to help little ones get more rest.

Ninety six percent of the doctors said that they had recommended a sleep medication in the last month, and overall they prescribed them to a quarter of their patients. Is a prescription necessary or safe for kids who can’t sleep? Continue reading »

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If your kids are at all like mine, getting them out of bed on a school day can be like pulling teeth — in fact, you’d think you were dragging them off to have their teeth pulled, the way they fight getting up.  I suspect it’s only going to get worse once they become teenagers.  But if the results a British high school has seen are typical, then one simple change would pretty much make the problem go away.

Continue reading »

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Finally, a little proof that what we’ve all been hoping would happen really does. New research says active kids get to sleep more easily.

So let the little wildebeests run wild, because Mommy and Daddy need a cuddle. Continue reading »

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