Sleep Improves Intelligence

Children With Asthma.
Over half of all children with asthma suffer from persistent rhinitis – a reaction to allergens from the droppings of house dust mites living in beds and soft furnishings.
Up to two million of the microscopic mites can live in the average double bed and the ordinary pillow will increase significantly in weight over six months because of their faeces.

Children Get Fat Because They Eat Junk Food.
Obesity leads to a sofa-bound lifestyle, not the other way round, an Early Bird diabetes study found.
Study director Professor Terence Wilkin, of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, said: “It is well known less active children are fatter, but that does not mean as most people assume – inactivity leads to fatness”.

Regular Sleep Improves Their Intelligence.
Children who go to bed at the same time every night are said to improve their intelligence.
Research says youngsters who have regular bedtimes are better at languages, reading and maths than those who do not.
Those who go to bed earlier than most are also more likely to pick things up quicker.
Pre-school children who have less than the recommended eleven hours of sleep a night run the risk of falling behind.

Sex Offences Against Children.
Almost half of all sex offences in the UK are committed against children, despite them making up just 21% of the population.
The 19,250 offences made 47% of the total in 2008 / 2009.

Children Don’t Eat Enough Fish.
Millions of children in the UK may face serious health problems because their diets are too low in fish.
Fewer than one in 10 eats enough to meet guidelines.
And 90% never have Omega 3-rich oily fish, such as mackerel, sardines or herring.
Experts urge parents to change the pattern as Omega 3 acids are hugely important in developing the brain, eyes and immunity.

Allergy To Peanuts.
The number of children with a dangerous allergy to peanuts has tripled in the past decade.
Scientists found 1.4% of children in 2008 had peanut allergies, up from 0.4% in 1997.
Experts think clean houses, less children playing outside and medicines that quickly treat infections could be to blame for the rise.
They believe these factors could leave children’s immune systems more vulnerable to attacks from normally harmless food proteins.

Sleeping Parents Can Kill Their Baby.
At least 25 babies have died sleeping with an adult on a sofa in the past two years in the UK.
Previous studies showed sofa-sharing increased an infant’s risk of dying suddenly by 50-fold.
But parents still doze off on them with tots.
Cot death charity, The Foundation For The Study Of Infant Deaths, who collated the data, said it showed adults were ignoring warnings.
Infants still sleep in risky environments.

Why Do We Have To Sleep?
Sleep remains the great unsolved puzzle, the big black hole in the scientific universe.
That’s a bit of an exaggeration but it’s true that sleep is weird.
What’s it for?
And why does it come to some more easily than others?
If you don’t sleep you hallucinate and, eventually die.
Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.
The Americans now spend £15.6billion a year on goods and services related to sleep, and America’s National Sleep Foundation claims that 70 million Americans – that’s more than the population of France – suffer from some sort of sleeping disorder.
There are more than 80 recognised sleep disorders.
In 1975, there were only three accredited sleep laboratories in the United States.
Today there are 1,782.

Then There’s Ritalin.
Then there’s Ritalin, a medication to control attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
There have been discrepancies in prescriptions across the country, suggesting possible over-prescription in some areas.
The drug is controversial, having been dubbed a “chemical cosh” by some, and it’s certainly not to be taken lightly as side-effects include depression, anxiety, agitation and sleeplessness.
The condition varies greatly between individuals and should be the absolute last resort after behavioural treatments, in my opinion.
( Dr Miriam Stoppard, Daily Mirror, 30.03.2010 )

Chickenpox Vaccine Not Available On NHS.
There are 700,000 cases of chickenpox in the UK every year and, while most are mild, more than 2,000 people are hospitalised because of complications.
About ten die.
“The most common complication is bacterial infection of skin lesions. These may provide a portal of entry for invasive diseases including necrotising fasciitis and sepsis. Chickenpox can also cause pneumonia and central nervous system manifestations including encephalitis, meningitis and vaculitis or strokes”, says Dr Vas Novelli, a consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Adults are most at risk, along with children under one and immuno-compromised patients, such as those with cancer or HIV and pregnant women.
The varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine is not available on the NHS but you can pay to have it done privately.
It is safe for children over 12 months old, if given during childhood, only one dose is required.
For adults a second, booster, injection is given four to eight weeks after the first.
The varicella vaccine has been a part of the routine immunisation programme in America since 1995, and is also universally given to children in Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
But in the UK only healthcare workers and family members of at-risk patients receive it.