We plant the seeds of future Alzheimer’s disease in our children by what we feed them; and, more importantly, by the lifestyle we instill and expose them to…one that is sedentary, stressful, and sleepless.
This is the fourth blog of a four part series explaining each major lifestyle risk factor common to both childhood obesity and Alzheimer’s disease: sedentary, stressful, and sleepless. . In Part One, I gave an overview to the childhood obesity epidemic that exists in the US today. In Part Two, I discussed the effects of stress on the brain and how to manage your child’s stress. In Part Three, I discussed sedentary lifestyle as one of the major causes of obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. In this fourth blog, I will discuss sleeplessness and I will make recommendations on how you can encourage and implement good sleep habits in your child’s life.
Sleepless, No Sleep for Young Men & Women
Why is sleep so important? Kids who spend too much time not only watching TV, playing video games, talking on the phone, on extracurricular activities and staying up late to study or “cram” –at the expense of sleep time, simply do less well in school. Later in life, they are more prone to addiction, psychological disorders, memory deficits, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Lack of sleep compromises many of the skills that make for healthy living – attention, organization, creative thinking, and efficiency. It also erodes the motivation that kids have to do well in the first place. Why is this? During stages 3 and 4 of REM sleep, occurring only when we get 7 or more hours of sleep, our brain is able to rejuvenate our healthy neurotransmitters: Dopamine and Serotonin. These neurotransmitters are essential to our ability to have willpower and a general feeling of happiness and good mood.
Technology is killing the minds of our kids! The Kaiser Family Foundation in 2000 reported that one-third of two-to-seven-year-olds and two-thirds of eight-to-eighteen-year-olds already have a television in their bedroom. And the most recent data from 2004 shows that this number is continues to grow. A National Sleep Foundation poll found that 30 percent of preschoolers and 43 percent of school-aged children have a television in their bedroom. What’s more, the National Institute on Media and the Family reported that children with a television in their bedroom are likely to spend an additional five and a half hours a week watching it. That’s about forty-five minutes a day that could be better spent reading, playing outside, or sleeping.
Television is a stimulating activity. Television watching (and video games and computer games) is much more likely to wake kids up than to put them to sleep. In other words, watching TV is counterproductive to achieving the state of relaxation that we all need in order to fall asleep. Television programming is all about “what’s coming up next.” The whole point is to try to hook the viewer into watching one more segment, one more episode, one more show. You, as an adult, might be able to ignore that message, but most kids can’t.
Studies have shown that television can lead to sleep problems. Children who watch a lot of television, watch television as part of their bedtime routine, and especially children who have a television in their room are more likely to have sleep difficulties. These include difficulty falling asleep, anxiety at bedtime, and night wakings. These children are also more likely to get less sleep than they need.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children’s bedrooms be “media-free zones.” That means no computer, video games, and no television set. There may be some biological reasons why television watching might be “anti-sleep.” Noise and particularly light, even low levels of light, can make falling asleep more difficult. Light prevents the brain from turning on the production of the hormone melatonin, which in turn is absolutely critical to turning on sleep. The bottom line is that bedrooms should be for quiet activities like reading, listening to music, daydream, and above all, sleeping.
Additionally, what your child watches can affect their dreams. Jo Anne Cantor’s book, “Mommy, I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them,” describes the negative effects that the vivid visual pictures on the television screen can have on children (and the same would certainly apply to computer game graphics). As an adult, you can process and put into context the disturbing images you seen on the nightly news or the latest crime drama, but your child may not be able to do the same and may incorporate those images into nightmares.
Finally, it is important to discuss the confounding stress childhood obesity and lack of sleep places on health. A number of studies suggest that there is a link between lack of sleep and weight gain. Some of these studies have looked at how sleep deprivation changes the body’s normal metabolism and hormone function, and the results are not good. Not getting enough sleep seems to affect not only how inefficiently you metabolize calories, but also how hungry you feel by altering the level of a number of hormones—serotonin, leptin, perhaps others—in the body. Lack of sleep reduces serotonin and leptin causing us to crave food, especially food high in sugar and carbohydrates. A diet high in sugar & carbohydrates causes weight gain and obesity.
One study in Japan found a link in six and seven-year-olds between obesity and later bedtimes and fewer hours of sleep. Children who got less than eight hours of sleep had an almost three times greater risk of being obese compared to children who got ten or more hours. In addition, some of these studies suggest this relationship may also go in the other direction. In other words, the risk of being obese decreases with each additional hour that your child sleeps! This may well be the single greatest argument you’ll ever have in getting your teenager to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
In addition, being overweight or obese can greatly increase your child’s chances of having a serious sleep disorder. Obstructive sleep apnea is a breathing disorder that occurs during sleep and affects about 1-3 percent of children in the United States. It often leads to problems with attention, behavior, and academics. The most common cause in children is related to being overweight or obese (the best predictor of sleep apnea in adults is having a neck size of seventeen inches or above). Over the past ten years in our sleep clinic, we have clearly evaluated more and more overweight and obese children and teenagers for sleep apnea. In fact, about two-thirds of the children diagnosed with sleep apnea are overweight or obese.
The combination of obesity and sleep apnea may also have greater consequences than either condition alone. As it has in adults, sleep apnea in obese children has been associated with insulin resistance, a condition that increases the risk of heart disease, high triglyceride levels, and diabetes later on. Studies also suggest that both obesity and sleep apnea in children are independently associated with a decreased quality of life (physical, emotional, social, academic functioning) and chronic deficits in sleep cause Alzheimer’s disease.
Action Plan
Ensure and encourage that your child gets 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Limit television, videogames, phone, and Internet especially right before bed when it will most disrupt their ability to relax. Eliminate television as part of your child’s sleep routine. Remove technology from your child’s bedroom, where it cannot be monitored for content or usage. Monitor your child for sleep apnea and manage your child’s weight by encouraging proper diet and exercise.
The damage of Alzheimer’s disease begins 30 years before the first symptoms. Alzheimer’s and poor health begins with the choices you make for your child at the grocery store, by the technology you give them, and by the amount of time you allow them to engage in technology over exercise and sleep. You can stop the cycle of obesity, chronic stress, and disease!
Obesity is the number one risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease that we can control. It starts with poor lifestyle; poor lifestyle that you, as a parent, create or correct. It is your choice! Please give your kids the gift of optimal health by taking the responsibility and teaching them proper lifestyle. Give them the most precious gift of all, your presence at the dinner table. Make it a number one priority of your family.
I applaud your personal efforts and concerns for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and I wish for you and your kids’ optimal health! For more information and helpful tips on how to manage obesity and prevent risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease please read the Anti-Alzheimer’s Prescription available in all major book stores and online at Amazon.com or visit www.dearprogram.com or www.anti-alzheimers.com
