Parenting Strategies to Foster Healthy Sleep

[Dr. Sandra Fritsch] As a child psychiatrist, we know sleep is so very important that the lack of sleep, not good sleep, not good-quality sleep increases the risk for depression, increases the risk for anxiety. So what strategies need to be used? When I’m working with families, I say the bed should never be used for anything other than sleep. You should not have a laptop on your lap, you should not be on your phone when you’re in your bed, because the message that’s happening to your brain and your body is, “My bed is for all this stuff. It’s not for sleep.” So how to be able to put strategies in place so that, you know, you can get a cheap alarm clock that goes off, to set the alarm so you get up in the morning and, you know, if possible, that there be a media room where that stuff is happening rather than on your bed in your bedroom, if that’s at all possible.