poor sleep habits and the rate of attention deficit hyperactive disorder
(ADHD). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, ADHD
affects two million or 5 percent of children in the United States. The title
is applied to children diagnosed with learning disabilities, hyperactive
behavior, poor focusing and concentrating skills, and those lacking the
basic skill of paying attention.
With thousands of PDF children around the country, we were curious
to know what the ADHD rates were among the PDF population. To find
out, we conducted a preliminary retrospective survey of 423 school
children five years and older, all who during infancy established healthy
naps and nighttime sleep habits as outlined in Babywise. Of the 423
children, only six children (.014) carried the ADHD label. Surprisingly
low as these results may be, they do make sense. Healthy sleep positively
effects neurologic development and appears to be the right medicine for
the prevention of many learning and behavioral deficiencies.
Is Infant Sleep Deprivation Dangerous?
Imagine your spouse getting no more than three hours sleep at a stretch
for one week. Would you expect this to impact his or her attitudes,
actions, and overall accountability? Certainly the negative effects on his
or her mature central nervous system are widely known. You would not
be surprised to observe your partner becoming irritable and weak, having
difficulty concentrating, perhaps experiencing partial neurologic
shutdown. This is just the beginning. Now consider an infant whose
central nervous system is still developing. Even more is at stake. To what
extent, then, does sleep deprivation negatively impact an infant’s
developing central nervous system?
Imagine parenting in such a way that your baby is not allowed to
sleep continuously for eight hours for even one night out of three hundred
and sixty-five. Is it possible that many of the learning disabilities
associated with nonstructured parenting are rooted in something as basic
as sleep? As the higher brain continues developing during the first year of
life, a definite possibility exists that the absence of continuous nights of