Moms: How to Sleep Soundly, Even When You’re Sick

Sore throat. Stuffy nose. Wheezing cough. When you’re sick with a cold or flu, all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep for a week or two. But your pesky symptoms make it impossible to rest easy. When bedtime finally rolls around, you actually feel worse than you did during the day.

“When you have a cold or the flu, congestion worsens at night,” says Dr. Neil Schachter, medical director of the respiratory care department of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and author of The Good Doctor’s Guide to Cold and Flu. “When you lie down, the airways are more likely to become clogged with mucus.”

Here’s how to stop tossing and turning, and get a restorative night’s sleep.

1. Have a tea party. Before you go to bed, sip a mug of decaffeinated black tea. The antioxidant-rich beverage contains theobromine, which is a natural cough suppressant, and the heat thins mucus. Add lemon to help cut through congestion and honey to soothe the throat.
2. Rinse away congestion. Wash away gunk that’s interfering with your breathing by doing regular nasal rinses. Nasal rinse kits can be found at most drugstores and are easy and painless to use. Essentially, you are rinsing your nasal cavity with a mixture of distilled water and sodium. This helps to clear passages and keep them moist. If you’re uncomfortable with a nose rinse, try a saline nasal spray instead. This also helps to flush out the nose, which makes breathing easier, says Dr. Schachter.
3. Pamper a sore throat. “The throat feels sore during an infection because the mucus that is lining the throat is filled with inflammatory compounds,” says Dr. Schachter. Add half a teaspoon table salt to warm water, gargle for 10 seconds and spit out. Removing the virus-laden mucus relieves both sore throat and coughing.
4. Darken your bedroom. It’s important to create a healthy environment that promotes quality sleep. Since incoming light tells the brain to wake up, try to block morning light from reaching your eyes. You can accomplish this by hanging dark curtains or by wearing a comfortable sleep mask that covers your eyes. Also, if you have a brightly illuminated alarm clock, make sure it’s not facing you during the night.
5. Keep it cool. In your bedroom, set the thermostat low. When your body temperature drops, your brain goes into sleep mode. The National Sleep Foundation recommends between 54 F and 75 F.
6. Take a hot shower. Before bed, muster the strength to take a hot shower. When you get out, the drop in body temperature helps prepare your brain for sleep. Bonus: Steam loosens congestion and hydrates your nasal and throat passages.
7. Slip on socks. Put on a pair of cozy socks before you get into bed. According to a Swiss study, warming your feet helps your body relax and puts you in the snooze zone.
8. Silence symptoms. Some common symptoms, such as a cough and congestion, can make restful sleep a real challenge when you’re sick. Over-the-counter medications can help alleviate these uncomfortable obstacles to a good night’s sleep.
9. Elevate your head. When you’re sick, sleep with your head elevated. Prop yourself up with a few extra pillows or the plump cushions from your sofa. Sleeping elevated helps ease sinus pressure and makes breathing less difficult.
10. Quiet your mind. Even when you’re exhausted and not feeling well, sometimes you can have a mental block that prevents you from falling asleep. To get into the right frame of mind, try one of these calming pursuits: meditate, jot your thoughts into a journal, listen to soothing music or read your favorite book.

How to Talk to Your Kids About…Bedtime

Bedtime is hard for many families. Everyone is tired, worn out, and short on patience. As parents, if we stick to a routine and change the way we think about putting our kids to bed, it will really help with the bedtime battles. It can be a great time of day when we relax, connect, listen, talk and teach.

Remember, sleep breeds sleep. The more your child sleeps, the more your child will sleep. We need to stop thinking that skipping naps will make getting them into bed easier.

To make bedtime an enjoyable time of day for everyone, ESTABLISH A ROUTINE. By sticking to a routine, kids know what to expect. This will help them feel safe and secure because things are predictable. Predictability brings comfort.

Your routine should include…

• Setting a bed time and sticking with it. The more lenient you are with bedtime, the more going to bed will be a battle.
• Starting your bedtime routine at least 30 minutes before you want your kids to be in bed. This will allow time for your child to wind down, just like we need to do. Rushing them through bedtime prep does not allow them to do and say all that they need to in order to feel ready to stay quiet and sleep.
• Establish a sequence in which you will accomplish the same bedtime tasks every night. (For example…Put on Pj’s, go to the bathroom, brush teeth, read a book, talk about the day, say prayers, hugs and kisses, lights out).
• Change the way you think about bedtime. Time to start thinking about bedtime as a way to connect with our children. A time to laugh and snuggle and talk.

When talking to your kids about bedtime…

Don’t threaten. (“If you don’t go to sleep, you can’t play tomorrow”). This only makes things worse. Instead, stick to a routine, give lots of time to get ready for bed, and talk about the fun things that you will do, like “Tell me what you liked best about today and then we will turn out the lights”.

When kids get out of bed, be firm and say “You need to sleep in your bed”. Then, with little to no words at all, return them to their beds. At first, you might have to do this a lot. Keep with and don’t give in, not even one night.

Don’t get 10 glasses of water. Only respond to requests once. Explain that they can have one request and that is all. They will learn to use that request wisely and pretty soon, the requests will stop. Going up every time they call will fuel the fire and drag the process out for hours.

If bedtimes are already difficult in your family, remember that behavior can be modified. Establish and stick to your routine, don’t give up hope, be patient and don’t quit.

How to Recognize If Your Child Has An Airway Problem

Have you noticed any unnatural or worrisome behavior in your child’s sleeping patterns? For example, does your child snore, even as an infant? Does your child gasp for air, appear to choke, or thrash around in his or her sleep? If so, you may want to have your child’s airway development evaluated.

We all know proper breathing habits are essential to our children’s health, development, and intellectual success. Early detection and correction of airway problems is critical to their overall quality of life. Children who cannot adequately breathe through their noses tend to breathe through their mouths. Constant mouth breathing is not only unhealthy, but also tends to affect the growth of facial features.

Even if your child has never had any respiratory issues, his or her ability to easily and efficiently breathe depends on more than lung functionality. Even if your child’s lungs are functioning properly, any obstructions or constrictions of the airway over a significant amount of time can lead to unhealthy breathing habits and anatomical pathologies. As your child grows, a restricted airway increases his or her chances of asthma, allergies, and chronic sinus and throat infections.

Don’t forget – the tongue is the strongest muscle in our body! The more your child’s tongue sits in the lower jaw, the more pressure exerted. This leads to severely compromised nasal breathing, causing the upper jaw and midface to develop at a slower rate, because the natural growth stimulant of air flow through the nasal passages is absent. The deficiency of growth in our upper jaws and midface affects our facial balance, beauty and function. A poorly-developed upper jaw means less support for the eye sockets and nasal airways, leading to a deviated septum, asymmetrical nose, snoring, and sleep apnea.

By examining, diagnosing and treating your child’s airway development at an early age, you can:

• Remove dangerous factors influencing your child’s growth
• Ensure proper growth in your child’s development
• Assist in the psychological well-being of your child
• Save your child from a potential jaw surgery in adulthood
• Prevent crowding and crooked teeth in your child’s smile

To determine which course of treatment would be the most beneficial to your child, reach out to your pediatrician, dentist, orthodontist, or sleep specialist.

How to Overcome Sleeping Challenges with Your Young Child

Lots of young children find it difficult to settle down to sleep and will wake up during the night.

For some people, this might not be a problem. But if you or your child are suffering from lack of sleep, there are some simple techniques you can try.

Every child is different, so only do what you feel comfortable with and what you think will suit your child.

If your child won’t go to bed

If your child won’t go to sleep without you

More sleep tips for under-fives

Help your disabled child to sleep

Help with children’s sleep problems

If your child won’t go to bed

• Decide what time you want your child to go to bed.
• Close to the time that your child normally falls asleep, start a 20-minute “winding down” bedtime routine. Bring this forward by 5-10 minutes a week – or 15 minutes if your child is in the habit of going to bed very late – until you get to the bedtime you want.
• Set a limit on how much time you spend with your child when you put them to bed. For example, read only one story, then tuck your child in and say goodnight.
• Give your child their favourite toy, dummy (*pacifier) (if they use one) or comforter before settling into bed.
• Leave a beaker (*cup) of water within reach and a dim light on if necessary.
• If your child gets up, keep taking them back to bed again with as little fuss as possible.
• Try to be consistent.
• You may have to repeat this routine for several nights.

If your child won’t go to sleep without you

This technique can help toddlers (over 12 months) or older children get used to going to sleep without you in the room.

It can also be used whenever your child wakes in the middle of the night.

Be prepared for your child to take a long time to settle when you first start.

You can use strokes or pats instead of kisses if your child sleeps in a cot and you can’t reach them to give them a kiss.

• Have a regular, calming bedtime routine.
• Put your child to bed when they are drowsy but awake and kiss them goodnight.
• Promise to go back in a few moments to give them another kiss.
• Return almost immediately to give a kiss.
• Take a few steps to the door, then return immediately to give a kiss.
• Promise to return in a few moments to give them another kiss.
• Put something away or do something in the room then give them a kiss.
• As long as the child stays in bed, keep returning to give more kisses.
• Do something outside their room and return to give kisses.
• If the child gets out of bed, say, “back into bed and I’ll give you a kiss”.
• Keep going back often to give kisses until they are asleep.
• Repeat every time your child wakes during the night.

See more tips from Barts Health NHS Trust on helping young children to sleep (PDF, 219kb).

More sleep tips for under-fives

• Make sure you have a calming, predictable bedtime routine that happens at the same time and includes the same things every night.
• If your child complains that they’re hungry at night, try giving them a bowl of cereal and milk before bed (make sure you brush their teeth afterwards).
• If your child is afraid of the dark, consider using a nightlight or leaving a landing (*hallway) light on.
• Don’t let your child look at laptops, tablets or phones in the 30-60 minutes before bed – the light from screens can interfere with sleep.
• When seeing to your child during the night, be as boring as possible – leave lights off, avoid eye contact and don’t talk more than necessary.
• Avoid long naps in the afternoon.

Help your disabled child to sleep

Sometimes children with long-term illnesses or disabilities find it more difficult to sleep through the night. This can be challenging both for them and for you.

Contact a Family has more information about helping your child sleep.

The Scope website also has sleep advice for parents of disabled children.

More help with children’s sleep problems

It can take patience, consistency and commitment, but most children’s sleep problems can be solved.

If your child is still having problems sleeping, you can talk to your health visitor.

They may have other ideas or suggest you make an appointment at a children’s sleep clinic, if there’s one in your area.

Editor’s Note: *clarification provided for our US readers.

From www.nhs.uk

Study: Can Music Help Premature Babies Sleep and Feed?

From www.nhs.uk

Sleep Apnea and Snoring in Kids – When Should You Worry?

You’re in the den watching the late news, your child is in bed and you hear snoring that seems louder and more interrupted than usual. What does it mean? Should you be concerned with snoring?

Well that depends on whether it’s upper airway restriction and mostly just noise or worse, i.e. sleep apnea.

Here’s the problem. Small diameter tubes can get less air through them than large tubes. That is the key to air flow and breathing well. Also, air flow and easy breathing relate directly to oxygen getting to the lungs and then to the brain. The actual airway size is not diagnostic for whether your child has obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in every case. But, OSA is more likely to occur in patients with smaller airways. A smaller sized airway doesn’t have to even result in OSA for it to be a problem. What matters is when that airway is partially or totally blocked during the night by the tongue, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, small nares or swollen sides of the mouth and throat. When this happens it is a serious medical problem.

Children who struggle to breathe have far less energy than those with a normal airway. Studies have shown that many, many problem stem from oxygen deprivation at night while sleeping: high blood pressure, mental fogginess, ADD, heart disease and much more. Neurological changes become permanent after a while so need to be addressed as soon as they are found. A disruption in the normal four stages of sleep makes a child grumpy, irritable, and even unruly. Sleep problems can then turn into muscle and growth problems. Normal sleep is essential for brain health.

A change of a few millimeters in airway opening can dramatically affect air flow. We know that arrested growth of anatomic structures in the head and neck cause a blocked airway due to scar tissue, genetic disorders, obesity, enlarged tonsils, adenoids, allergies and such. As dentists we want to see open airways for normal growth. Physicians must play an important role in helping keep the airway open and normal during the growth years or permanent damage is done. The diagnosis of whether it’s snoring or sleep apnea must come from a proper sleep study.

An early intervention to enlarge the airway diameter and openness in childhood will often result in the patient not developing OSA as an adult. We see this from the use of expansion appliances that make the palate wider, move the front teeth forward and by allowing the lower jaw to come forward and not be “trapped” back in a choked position against the throat. When the tongue has enough room and is held naturally in a forward position, the airway can work naturally and not be blocked all night long. From this you can see that orthodontics and orthopedic development of the jaws is far more critical than just making the teeth look pretty and straight.

When looking for a dentist or orthodontist for your child always ask if they know about the treatment of sleep apnea in adults and children and how to prevent OSA as well as treat it accurately.

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