Are Your Kids Running on Empty?

Lack of sleep and exhaustion from over activity and over stimulation are related; they can both have the following results:

  • decreased performance and alertness
  • memory and cognitive impairment
  • interference with carbohydrate metabolism (the breaking down of carbs), which leads to an increase in blood glucose levels, causing insulin to be released which can lead to weight gain and increased fat storage

HELP YOUR CHILD RAISE THEIR ENERGY LEVEL AND ENJOY LEARNING

Children who get the proper amount of sleep, which is determined on an individual basis, raise their personal energy level.

Thus, burnt-out or depressed kids need to raise their personal energy level in order to achieve well.

This information is all imperative for parents as they help schedule activities for their kids; the right amount of activity needs to be a top priority.

A RULE OF THUMB FOR

THE AMOUNT OF SLEEP NEEDED

is ten to twelve hours for young children and nine hours for teenagers. If a teen sleeps longer on weekends than during the week, this indicates a sleep deficit.

With the right amount of sleep, a child or teen will wake up feeling refreshed with energy and will generally not get sleepy during the day.

IS YOUR CHILD OVERSLEEPING?

If you want to assess if one of your children is oversleeping, you can consult The National Sleep Foundation and complete the sleepiness test found at this link: https://sleepfoundation.org/quiz/national-sleep-foundation-sleepiness-test.

 

STRESS CAN LEAD TO EXHAUSTION

Stress that overwhelms a person’s ability to adapt may also lead to exhaustion.

Ordinarily, energy reserves are replenished daily by food and sleep. Generally, parents need to help their kids organize their lives so that their adaptation-energy levels are not depleted when they are stressed.

David Elkind (2007) points out in his book, The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon, that stress is “any unusual demand for adaptation that forces us to call upon our energy reserves over and above that which we ordinarily expend and replenish in the course of a twenty-four hour period”

EMOTIONAL STRESSORS

The most important stressors are emotional, especially those causing distress. Emotional stimuli with which we are almost constantly faced can result in nervous responses (fear, pain, frustration).

The stressor effects depend not so much upon what we do or what happens to us but on the way we take it.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

The stress of “information overload” from the media and technology or from violence in schools can also exceed a child’s capacity to tolerate stress and lead to exhaustion.

If there is not time to replenish a child’s energy reservoirs with extra sleep after stressful occasions, fatigue is the result.

If children are pushed to grow up too fast—due to these various types of overload—they consequently suffer from stress that they cannot cope with by just additional sleep. Exhaustion will certainly be the result, along with anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders.

STRESS OVERLOAD!

STRESS OVERLOAD

 

THE PARENT’S GOAL: TO OBSERVE EXHAUSTION EARLY ON BEFORE IT DISRUPTS PRODUCTIVITY AND CAUSES EMOTIONAL PAIN.

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