Press Release for Snooze or Lose! 10 "no-war" Ways to Improve Your Teens Sleep HabitsSnooze. . . Or Lose! 10 'No War' Ways To Improve Your Teen's Sleep Habits
Walk into any first-period high school classroom and it's obvious: teenagers are exhausted. Sleep deprivation is an epidemic as widespread as obesity'”and just as damaging. Fortunately, science has answers and Dr. Helene Emsellem has solutions that all parents can use.Snooze or Lose (Joseph Henry Press, September 2006, $24.95, cloth) explains the critical role that sleep plays in teens' lives and provides guidelines for helping teens get the sleep they need. Written in a lively and down-to-earth style, with lots of tips and advice from teens themselves, this book will be the go-to guide for parents and kids looking for a good night's sleep.Affecting the lives of more than 41 million adolescents in the United States alone, sleep deprivation is a chronic problem for kids today. We know this intuitively as we watch kids frantically juggle a hectic social calendar with the overwhelming demands of school, work, and chores. School performance around the country is suffering but it's not just grades that are at risk. Sleep deprivation has been found to affect nearly every aspect of a teenager's life, from emotional stability and behavioral issues to physical well-being and the potential for drug and alcohol abuse.Snooze or Lose provides parents of teens and teens with an easy to read, scientifically based understanding of the sleep needs of adolescents, the changes in brain function associated with adolescence that make getting enough sleep challenging, the myriad of consequences of inadequate and poorly timed sleep and a practical guide to helping teens obtain sufficient sleep for optimum mood and performance.For years, we've blamed many of these teenage characteristics on the natural maturing process or changing hormones. And while chemicals do surge through the body creating strong effects, sleep'”the right amount and the right kind'”has now been targeted for its prime importance in overall success and well-being. Snooze or Lose is a primer on teen sleep and will be a resource not only to parents but also to educators, psychologists and medical practitioners.Teen sleep is a NOW problem. And Here's Why:1. The current pressures on teens to succeed with overwhelming competition involved in the college entrance process.
2. Our evolution to a 24-7 culture with the technology era bombarding teens with options to stay 'engaged' throughout the night (from their own bedrooms!)
3. Presumably 'innocent'¯ changes to earlier high school start times initiated as money-saving strategies in many school districts over the past 10 to 15 years resulting in high school start times as early as 7:20 AM with bussed students picked up before 6 AM in some school districts, exacerbating the problem of insufficient sleep.
4. There are major community efforts beginning across the country as PTAs and school districts begin to recognize the need to change the start times. This book will arm them with data and scientific validation for their efforts
5. The 2006 Sleep in America Poll just released in the end of March and was all about the problems with sleep in teens. This poll has provocative data about the extent of sleep restriction and its impact on our teens. The release of this poll makes the book extremely timely and will be a resource to anyone wanting to read more about teen sleep problems.Dr. Helene A. Emsellem, M.D., is a nationally known sleep expert who serves as the go-to media resource for the National Sleep Foundation and is a spokesperson for the 2005 Sleep in America Poll. Dr. Emsellem has been featured as a sleep expert on 'Larry King Live'; 'Medical Answers,' a syndicated PBS television show; 'Doc in the House,' a syndicated radio call-in show; 'ABC Now,' a cable program; and 'Girl Talk,' a live radio call-in show in the Washington, D.C., area. She is also quoted regularly in columns and articles in national publications covering health and sleep, including Redbook, Glamour, U.S. News & World Report, Scientific American, The Washington Post, Washingtonian, MORE, Cosmopolitan, and the AARP Bulletin.
www.sleepdoc.com Copyright 2006