My daughter Kate (the Gator) has always been a restless sleeper.  She murmurs, talks and occasionally even yells in her sleep!  That makes for some restless nights for mom and dad but especially mom.  If that sounds familiar to your family you should know that some researchers say it may be best to check your own sleep habits first before you race to the doc with your child because you may be in for a surprise

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Fox News reports Scandinavian doctors looked at 100 children between the ages of two and six-years-old who attended more than a dozen different daycare centers. They asked the parents of the children to complete sleep diaries for themselves and for the kids as well as fill out a health questionnaires. The kids also wore devices called actigraphs on their wrists  to monitor their sleep and movement.

So here’s the surprise.  The results show taking into account factors like the child's age, gender, number of siblings and more, parents who reported poor sleep themselves were much more likely to report sleep disturbances in their kids –disturbance that were not confirmed by the actigraphs.

Researchers at the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia say that people who don’t get enough sleep often focus on and remember more negative events in general and they’re more likely to focus their attention on their sleep and the sleep of those around them.

 

Trouble with that is that you may label your kid as a "bad sleeper" when he or she is not and that can lead them to internalize the belief and actually turn them into a bad sleeper! (Fox)

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