conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Sleep, I>Solve, Child's with the genre: Parenting & Relationships, Parenting?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book? End with the sentence ' Through my work with thousands of families, I can now offer a number of new methods for treating a variety of common sleep problems.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems
  So why did I see the need, twenty years later, for this revised and considerably expanded edition? There are three main reasons.
  The first reason is to correct some widespread misconceptions regarding my methods and their application. My goals have always been to help parents understand the nature of sleep and of childhood sleep problems, determine the causes of their own child's sleep difficulties, and choose or design an appropriate treatment program that fits their own philosophy of child rearing. I have always believed that the more you understand about your child's sleep problems, the more humane and effective you can be in solving them. A child may cry repeatedly each night, for example, but until parents understand why that is happening and institute proper treatment, they may be unable to resolve it in a way they find satisfactory.
  In this edition I have attempted to make it much clearer that there are many different sleep problems, that apparently identical sleep problems may have different causes in different children, and that a single sleep problem may have multiple contributing causes. To properly choose a treatment, one must take all these factors into account. Each problem and cause may require a different treatment (what works well for one problem may be inappropriate for another), and all component causes may have to be treated (a partial solution is no solution at all). In addition, often a number of treatment options are available, some of which fit a particular child's needs or personality and his or her parents' desires better than others. I have tried to present more of these choices so that you, the reader, can find an approach you believe appropriate and are comfortable with, whether you live in a big home or small, sleep separately or together, or have one child or many; and whether your child is nervous or confident, cooperative or difficult, outgoing or shy.
  The second reason for this new edition is to better address topics that were discussed inadequately in the original. Questions from parents have helped me identify topics that needed to be expanded, such as co-sleeping, naps, sleep problems in twins, and travel to different time zones. (The omission of co-sleeping from the original version, apart from a regrettably brief reference that only repeated the conventional attitude of the day, was unfortunate, given the importance of the issue to many parents.) This edition covers such topics in the detail they deserve.
  Finally, in this revision I have added new information drawn from the last twenty years' experience, study, and scientific discoveries. We now have more accurate information than we did in 1985 about children's sleep requirements, and we know more about the biological clock and its effects on sleep and alertness, about sleep terrors and related problems, and about medical issues such as bedwetting, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy. Through my work with thousands of families, I can now offer a number of new methods for treating a variety of common sleep problems.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know five more paragraphs? End with the sentence ' As a result, a late sleep phase is one of the most common sleep problems to occur at any age.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: This strategy worked effectively. After six days, Victoria's schedule had been pushed later an hour and a half: now she was sleeping from 8:30 P.M. to 6:30 A.M., as her parents desired. She napped now at ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, and she ate her meals at seven in the morning, noon, and six in the evening.
  Changing a child's entire schedule is not always necessary. For example, if his sleep phase is too early for you, but his feedings and naps do not fall especially early, then you can gradually adjust his bedtime alone. Regardless, if your child is still at the age of napping, he should keep doing so, but don't let his naps last longer than they did before: as you move his bedtime later, you want him to make up the lost sleep at the end of the night, not in the daytime.
  If, despite a later schedule, you are still having trouble getting him to sleep late enough, keep moving his bedtime even later, a little at a time—while being sure you don't let him extend his naps or have an early-morning nap or feeding. His bedtime may have to be temporarily moved later than you want in order to force his wake-up time later to the desired hour, but at some point it will happen. Once it does, you can begin to gradually move his bedtime earlier again, as long as he continues to wake up when you want.
  It may help to provide your child with lots of light in the evening, and to keep his room dark in the morning until the time when you want him to wake. Room-darkening shades and curtains can be useful. Children whose rooms let in bright sunlight early every morning may simply be unable to move their sleep phase later until this light is blocked.
  Your child is said to have a late sleep phase if he naturally falls asleep and wakes later than you (or he) would like (see Figure 11). That is most likely to happen if your child is inherently an owl. But, as explained in Chapter 9, all of our sleep phases tend to drift later due to certain biological drives and exposure to artificial light at night. As a result, a late sleep phase is one of the most common sleep problems to occur at any age.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last four paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis usually respond well to medications ordinarily used in the treatment of depression, namely the tricyclics and the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Sodium oxybate given at night, although not an antidepressant, also decreases cataplexy significantly, perhaps because of its known effect of improving sleep and decreasing REM onsets (though how it does that is unknown).
  The symptoms of hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis, if they are present at all, don't always need to be treated, especially if they are mild and occasional. They are annoying and somewhat frightening, but they are not dangerous, and once children understand why these symptoms occur they often learn to accept them. If a child's cataplexy is very mild and episodes are rare, treatment may also be postponed. But if the cataplexy is dangerous, embarrassing, or frightening, it should be treated.
  Jacqueline's cataplexy was moderately severe, and besides, it was important to her that she be able to laugh freely in public without fear of embarrassment or of injuring herself. So her medication program included treatment for cataplexy, and both that symptom and her sleep paralysis were easily controlled. If Brendan required similar treatment, it probably would not be for several years, but he and his family knew what to look for and would understand the symptoms if and when they appeared.
  A number of drugs to treat the symptoms of narcolepsy are in varying stages of development, including some that mimic the effects of the deficient hypocretin molecule itself. It is hoped that such research will lead not only to better treatment of symptoms but also to treatments directed at the cause of the disease itself, and thus effectively to a cure.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Sodium oxybate given at night, although not an antidepressant, also decreases cataplexy significantly, perhaps because of its known effect of improving sleep and decreasing REM onsets (though how it does that is unknown).
  The symptoms of hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis, if they are present at all, don't always need to be treated, especially if they are mild and occasional. They are annoying and somewhat frightening, but they are not dangerous, and once children understand why these symptoms occur they often learn to accept them. If a child's cataplexy is very mild and episodes are rare, treatment may also be postponed. But if the cataplexy is dangerous, embarrassing, or frightening, it should be treated.
  Jacqueline's cataplexy was moderately severe, and besides, it was important to her that she be able to laugh freely in public without fear of embarrassment or of injuring herself. So her medication program included treatment for cataplexy, and both that symptom and her sleep paralysis were easily controlled. If Brendan required similar treatment, it probably would not be for several years, but he and his family knew what to look for and would understand the symptoms if and when they appeared.
  A number of drugs to treat the symptoms of narcolepsy are in varying stages of development, including some that mimic the effects of the deficient hypocretin molecule itself. It is hoped that such research will lead not only to better treatment of symptoms but also to treatments directed at the cause of the disease itself, and thus effectively to a cure.