#37 - Just Ask Us ...
If you wish to know something about sleep - just ask us!
We can’t imagine how many questions we’ve been asked over the past couple of decades. Definitely thousands. And they’ve come from people from so many different places:
High school students after we’ve done a sleep talk at their school (and teachers)
Clients who have sought our help to treat their sleep problem - whether they’re adults, teens or kids.
Psychologists, doctors, nurses, paediatricians, counsellors, (etc.) at our 1-hr / half-day / or full-day workshops
Lawyers and magistrates who drill us when we have been an expert witness in a court case
Family members, friends, or people we’ve just met at a BBQ
Complete strangers on the internet
Companies and organisations who realise the importance of sleep
Scientists at conferences (or disguised as anonymous reviewers for our scientific manuscripts)
Journalists across the globe who need that quick story to fill the gap in their newspaper column or TV spot.
And students who enrol in our courses where we teach them how to do what we do.
Quite frankly, asking questions is a great way to learn. So … Just Ask Us.
So here’s how our new monthly Q&A is going to work:
Record your question (eg, on your phone). Make sure it’s less than 20 seconds (see how you can do this in the next image).
Please state your name (first name is fine) and where you call your part of the world ‘home’
Send the audio file to winksleeponline@gmail.com
Myself and one of our team members will be answering your questions and making this available as an easy-to-listen podcast.
Oh, and this next part is important…
Access to these Q&A podcasts is for our tribe - our community.
So you’ll need to subscribe for the low, low price of … free (thank you Jeremy for that joke!) - in order to access the podcasts (if you haven’t subscribed yet, look down at the bottom of the page).
We may even throw in the odd interview with a guest and see how they fair with our Sleep IQ Quiz.
And if videos are your thing, then we’ve started our YouTube channel. We’ve got 13 videos thus far - covering topics such as:
what to do when you have an infant or toddler who isn’t sleeping
our predictions for what COVID-19 was going to do to our sleep
a mini-tour of our sleep lab where we’ve undertaken heaps of experiments over the past 2 decades
and some TV spots we’ve been part of (why do our voices sound so different on TV?)
We’re planning so much more on the WINK sleep YouTube channel, so feel free to keep an eye out.
And hit the Subscribe button so you’re informed about when new content is uploaded.
But for today, we’re starting our Q&A in a written format - since we had a few questions in response to our podcast with Dr Kathryn Weston several weeks ago.
So in the words of the Chemical Brothers - Here We Go!
Just Ask Us …
Q: Are there sleep therapists in Australia or just generalists? In the UK, we don’t seem to have any.
Both. That is, Australia has strong training in sleep. These days you will find most Universities have at least some classes, full topics focused on sleep. There are now entire degrees that are being developed. And there are also some universities that have clinical training as well as research training in sleep. I was privileged to be able to undertake such sleep training at the turn of the century. One may consider these people to be sleep therapists.
Then there are people who have undertaking the usual training in their specified health profession, and learned a little bit about sleep. They may suggest that they can help people with sleep. These would be generalists, as they know a bit about a lot of different issues.
But these days there are also people who have not undertaken such intensive training, and may not have even have a health profession qualification. And they may call themselves a sleep therapist.
So this can be a bit confusing for the public. Who do they choose?
I’d really recommend having a read of our Who Is a Sleep Expert blog - this can help decided who to seek out depending on what help you need with sleep.
As for the UK - maybe 10 years ago I would say people like Dr Luci Wiggs and Dr Paul Gringas are paediatric sleep experts. Both Luci and Paul are the ones who I’ve seen at sleep conferences - and who I’ve seen publishing sleep research studies.
Since being on LinkedIn in the past couple of years, I’ve noticed many more people in the UK help young people’s sleep.
It may be worth contacting the British Paediatric Sleep Society to learn more … or maybe some brave soul will comment below ;) …
Q: What does the research say about sleep walking. Who would be an expert in this area?
Sleep walking is known as a parasomnia. Parasomnias are behaviours that occur when we should be sleeping. In this case, people (usually children) are in a deep sleep and then they ‘wake up’, and walk around the house. Yet they are not fully awake.
About 1 in 20 children can experience sleep walking within a 12-month period. Children usually ‘grow out of it’ when they enter the early stages of adolescence. This is because the intensity of their deep sleep decreases at this point, thus reducing the odds of experiencing these ‘attacks’.
Still, the prevalence of sleep walking in adults is about 1-2 people per 100.
Treatments exist for sleep-walking, however the studies performed thus far are not the most rigorous (ie, using a control group). Most of the studies are case reports (ie, treatment on 1 or a few people). Whilst there is still more to be learned, it appears psychological, pharmacological treatments (or both) are viable options.
Q: Is there any evidence that young people with intellectual disabilities suffer disproportionately from sleep disorders?
Yes. Sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea may be more common in young people with an intellectual disability (ID).
The causes for ID can vary, and thus dictate the type of sleep disorder. For example, people with Trisomy 21 (Down’s Syndrome) have structural qualities about their airways that mean they are more susceptible to experience a restriction of their breathing - or completely stop breathing. Thus, sleep apnea is more common in this population compared to other populations.
Fortunately, there are sleep interventions that help to alleviate sleep disorders in people with ID.
Q: Is there any evidence that start of school term negatively impacts on sleep, pr are children generally expected to be more tired?
Generally speaking, school-aged children do not have a large discrepancy in their sleep patterns during school days and weekends - especially compared to teenagers. This means that most will adapt relatively quickly to the transition from school holidays to school days.
Thus, when the structure of school is removed during holidays, it is usually the older children and teenagers who will stay up later, and tend to sleep in past their usual school wake-up time.
The problem with this is that sleeping-in can delay the circadian rhythm - particularly for teenagers (ie, a delay of 45-min can occur after sleeping-in on weekends).
This therefore means teens can really struggle transitioning back to school.
As as we have seen in our clinic - some of them never completely return to school.
But that doesn’t mean we cannot fix their sleep pattern and get them back to school …
What Sleepy Things Happened this Week?
We had 3 of our sleep research studies accepted by journals - so we will reveal what we found in future blogs.
I had the best interview ever - and it was conducted by a teenager doing her research project on sleep and melatonin!
We changed our homepage to show where we are headed. Not only are we going to wake-up people, but we’re also going to wake-up companies. We’re taking our inspiration from The Matrix Movie and the song in the end credits by Rage Against The Machine.
Time for a Change …
Prof Mike Gradisar