Sleep is a major problem for many neurodivergent children and lack of sleep can affect how children behave during the day. Sleep can also affect school performance. Sleep problems aren’t unique to neurodivergent children, but recommendations about how to address sleep problems, side effects from medication, and family routines are not one-size-fits-all. Please join us to learn what children, teens, parents, caregivers, healthcare providers, and school staff can do to help ensure that children (and families) get a great night’s sleep and feel energetic and ready to learn.

During this one-hour webinar, we will:

– Describe common sleep problems in children who are neurodivergent
– Identify the causes and contributors of sleep problems in this population
– Explore the behavioral and medical treatments for sleep problems in children with autism, ADHD, anxiety, epilepsy, and other neurodivergent populations

Beth Malow, MD, MS, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, is Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Director of the Vanderbilt Sleep Division. The mom of two adult sons on the autism spectrum, she has focused her clinical practice and research on improving sleep in neurodivergent populations. Dr. Malow has published and lectured widely on how to help families access sleep education and on the safety and effectiveness of supplemental melatonin for sleep.

Melatonin use in children has been growing. The licensure and regulation of melatonin varies across the world. In the United States, for example, melatonin is considered a dietary supplement and available over-the-counter, while in many parts of the world it is licensed under specific and strict guidelines and available by prescription only.

There is evidence showing that melatonin can be effective in children and young people with insomnia and with some circadian rhythm disorders. While there is robust evidence about the use of melatonin for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, there is a dearth of studies on its use in typically developing children. The International Pediatric Sleep Association (IPSA) recently formed a Melatonin Task Force with members from all parts of the world to conduct a rigorous review of the recent literature regarding the efficacy and adverse effects of melatonin in children, including those with special needs. With the release of the IPSA expert consensus paper expected soon, join our webinar to gain an international perspective from two members of the task force.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have encouraged parents to talk to their child’s primary care provider before giving melatonin to children. Primary care providers, parents, and caregivers need accurate information and guidance about the safety and efficacy of melatonin in children.

Judith Owens, MD, MPH is a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized authority on pediatric sleep and the author of over 200 original research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals, chapters, and books on the topic. She has been active in pediatric sleep clinical work, research, and education for over 30 years. Her research interests are in the neurobehavioral and health consequences of sleep problems in children and adolescents, sleep health education, sleep public policy, and cultural and psychosocial issues impacting on sleep. 

Dr. Owens is the current President of the International Pediatric Sleep Association (IPSA). Dr. Owens received her medical degree from Brown University and a Master’s in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota. 

She completed fellowships in Behavioral Pediatrics at Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center and in Child Psychiatry at Brown University.

Paul Gringras, MD is Professor of Sleep Medicine, King’s College London and Consultant in Pediatric Neurodisability and Sleep Medicine, at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He is founder of one of the few UK pediatric specialist sleep clinics with a holistic approach that addresses behavioral, genetic, and neurological causes of sleep disorder, in addition to more common sleep-related breathing problems.

Professor Gringras lectures internationally and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and books with a focus on the causes and treatment of sleep disorders in children with neurodevelopmental problems. His research includes epidemiological work as well as interventional studies, including two of the largest randomized controlled trials of melatonin in neurodevelopmental disorders to date. He leads two National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) intervention studies and pioneers on cutting-edge machine learning approaches to the diagnosis of narcolepsy.

Professor Gringras is the President Elect (IPSA) and serves on the British Paediatric Sleep Association executive committee.

• What insomnia treatment goals should be in children and young people
• What data is available on the efficacy of melatonin:

o  in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and insomnia

o  in typically developing children with insomnia

• What common side effects of melatonin are and recent safety concerns, including the variability of actual melatonin amounts in over-the-counter preparations in the US
• How families obtain and use melatonin around the world
• Where to find additional resources, including information about melatonin use in children with a neurodevelopmental disorder
• How caregivers and providers can help children with insomnia before turning to melatonin

Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD is a board-certified pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine physician. She is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and Founder of RestfulSleepMD. She’s passionate about helping people discover sleep as their superpower. She helps busy moms and their children prioritize sleep to thrive, achieve their optimal physical, emotional, and mental well-being, and to live life to their fullest potential.

• Why parents aren’t sleeping (hint: sometimes because our kids aren’t sleeping)
• Tips to set bedtime limits and tools to help our children stay in bed (and sleep)
• Strategies to keep your mind from racing and set boundaries for your own health
• How peri-menopause and menopause affect our sleep and what we can do about it

Lisa L. Lewis, MS, is a freelance journalist who covers the intersection of parenting, public health, and education. Her book, The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive, is an outgrowth of her previous work on the topic, including her role in helping get California’s landmark legislation on healthy school start times passed.

• How your practice can support healthy sleep for teens in your community
• How to build a coalition to advocate public policy that supports teen sleep
• Ways to collaborate with school & elected leaders for sleep-friendly hours
• Approaches to working with educators to improve sleep health learning
• Importance of expanding awareness of adolescent circadian rhythms

Sleep disorders in children, adolescents, and adults are common, yet they’re often under-recognized and under-diagnosed. Although sleep is especially important for the development, health, mood, and learning of growing children, approximately 25% of kids and adolescents will experience some type of sleep-related problem. And the sleep of the entire family can suffer. Our internationally recognized panel of experts will explain what we need to know about the most common pediatric sleep disorders and how we can help our kids get the support and health-sustaining sleep they need.

Being a teenager today is tougher than it needs to be, but there is a lot we adults can do to restore happiness and wellbeing to their lives. Let’s start with sleep. Insufficient sleep is one of the most pervasive threats to our teenagers’ physical and mental health, causing higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, diabetes, and car crashes. But the good news is that it is also one of the most treatable. Drawing upon scientific research and extensive experience counseling families, a duo of child and family therapists specializing in sleep will share insightful and practical tools the entire family can use to help teens get the sleep they desperately need.

After California became the first U.S. state to require school start times that prioritize adolescent sleep health, Start School Later spearheaded a virtual summit of experts across multiple disciplines, including health, education, equity, and transportation safety. The 2-day summit—hosted by Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine in 2021 and supported by the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine—confirmed the need for and feasibility of later start times for adolescents. The interdisciplinary group of nearly 100 experts reviewed existing research, recommended future research focus areas that could advance and assist implementation of healthy school start times, and identified unique opportunities (and challenges) to conduct research while most California schools begin to implement middle school start times of 8:00 a.m. and high school start times of 8:30 a.m. by the July 1, 2022 deadline. The peer-reviewed paper summarizing the summit’s findings is published in the Feb. 2022 scholarly journal, Sleep Health.

Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD, Executive Director and Co-founder of Start School Later, Lead Author of the publication in February 2022 journal, Sleep Health.

Joy Wake, Advocacy Director for Start School Later, CA Outreach Coordinator for Let’s Seep!

Dr. Judith Owens is Co-Director of the Pediatric Sleep Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is an internationally recognized authority on pediatric sleep and the author of over 175 original research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals, chapters, and books on the topic. Her research interests are in the neurobehavioral and health consequences of sleep problems in children and adolescents, sleep health education, sleep public policy, and cultural and psychosocial issues impacting on sleep. Dr. Owens is the Editor-in-Chief of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and current President of the International Pediatric Sleep Association. She received her medical degree from Brown University and a Master’s in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota. She completed fellowships in Behavioral Pediatrics at Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center and in Child Psychiatry at Brown University.

• The processes by which sleep helps us stay healthy and protect against illness
• The relationship between sleep and inflammation, and why it matters for health
• How the timing of sleep influences the immune system
• How age, gender, genetics, and societal factors impact our immunity and sleep
• How much sleep is necessary for optimal antibody production after vaccinations
• Practical tips to improve the quality and quantity of sleep in daily life

Brendan Duffy, CCSH, RPSGT, is Director of Sleep Services for Catholic Health Sleep Services on Long Island. He is a Registered Sleep Technologist with more than 24 years of clinical experience. He also is a Certified Clinical Sleep Educator and the Athletic Liaison for Start School Later. He was a travel coach for several baseball and roller hockey teams in the NY area. Brendan has spoken nationally about sleep’s impact in several areas of our health and performance and has appeared on NY network TV, Bethpage Black PGA Golf Radio, and other media venues. He has a special interest in studying sleep in athletes and its effect on recovery, performance, and injury prevention.

Meeta Singh, MD, is a sleep doctor whose work and research focuses on “Coaching the sleep muscle” to maximize performance in both individual athletes and sports teams. She is President and CEO of the Performance Sleep Practice. Dr. Singh served as the Sleep Consultant to the US Soccer Women’s National team for the Olympics 2021, and is currently serving as the Sleep Consultant for NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB teams and college athletic teams. In addition, Dr. Singh works with C-suite executives to help with jet lag management and enhancing sleep. She did her training in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic, a Sleep Fellowship at the Henry Ford Hospital, and is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (under the American Board of Medical Specialties) as a psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist. She is a member in good standing of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Virend Somers, MD, PhD, Director of the Cardiovascular Facility and Sleep Facility in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at Mayo Clinic, will present the Sleep Number Scientific Advisory Board Research Briefing.

• How sleep affects athletes’ performance and health
• Why sleep is a new frontier in performance enhancement
• How sleep boosts recovery and reduces injury
• Strategies to make sleep a gamechanger for your team

Craig Canapari, MD, is a pediatrician specializing in sleep medicine and pulmonology at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, the Director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center, and the proud dad of two young sons. He received his BA from Yale, his MD from the University of Connecticut, and completed his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Canapari is an acclaimed researcher and author, and a dynamic speaker and content creator who has helped thousands of children and their parents get the sleep they need. 

• What your family can start doing today to get sleep-ready for back to school
• Morning routine changes for more wakeful days and earlier bedtimes
• Tips for limiting nighttime electronics that can actually work
• How to get buy-in from your teens and preteens to avoid arguments
• What to do when factors beyond your control contribute to kids’ sleep loss
• A last summer vacation that might actually help your kids go to bed earlier

Dr. Judith Owens is Co-Director of the Pediatric Sleep Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is an internationally recognized authority on pediatric sleep and the author of over 175 original research and review articles in peer-review journals, chapters, and books on the topic. Her research interests are in the neurobehavioral and health consequences of sleep problems in children and adolescents, sleep health education, sleep public policy, and cultural and psychosocial issues impacting on sleep. Dr. Owens is the Editor-in-Chief of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and current President of the International Pediatric Sleep Association. She received her medical degree from Brown University and a Master’s in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota. She completed fellowships in Behavioral Pediatrics at Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center and in Child Psychiatry at Brown University.

Tom Platt is the owner of Decision Support Group, a school transportation consulting company focused on developing solutions to support healthy and safe student access to school. For more than 20 years, Tom’s work has been at the intersection of controlling transportation costs while maximizing the usefulness and effectiveness of transportation services. He has supported school districts in the areas of routing efficiency assessments, operational performance evaluations, technology acquisition and implementation, and implementation of broad scale organizational transformations. He has also managed a number of high-profile school start time projects, including those in Fairfax County, Virginia and Greenwich, Connecticut. Tom holds a degree in Maritime Transportation from the Maine Maritime Academy, and a Master of Business Administration with a focus in logistics and operations from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

 Azizi Seixas, Ph.D.

Dr. Seixas is an Assistant Professor at NYU Langone Health, in the Department of Population Health and Department of Psychiatry, where he serves as Director of Early Career Faculty Development for the Department of Population Health. Dr. Seixas is the Chair of the Young Investigator Research Forum, as well as a member of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning sub-committee at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Seixas serves on the mental health task force at the NCAA and at the Department of Defense. An internationally-recognized expert, Dr. Seixas has over 100 high impact, peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and conference presentations broadly focused on two research areas: 1) Determinants of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic disease/conditions, mental health, and brain health, and 2) Developing adaptive, precise, and personalized behavioral interventions to improve health and well-being with the use of machine learning, translational artificial intelligence, and digital technology. Recognized as one of the top 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America by Cell Press, Dr. Seixas is a sought-after speaker on a variety of public health topics, and has appeared on several media outlets, such as CBS, CNN, NBC, Associated Press, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and is the sleep expert for NBC Health News.

Amy Wolfson, Ph.D. 

Dr. Wolfson is a Professor of Psychology at Loyola University. She received her AB in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. Her longstanding scholarship focuses broadly on adolescents’ sleep health and daytime functioning with a deep commitment to preventive-interventions, including delaying school start times and her Sleep-Smart program for early adolescents. Her current collaborative work (with Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services, Drs. Marianna Carlucci and Stephanie Crowley, Rush Medical College, and Loyola students) is examining the sleep health, schedules, and environment of youth residing in the juvenile justice system. Moreover, she is also working with colleagues at the University of Houston and Fairleigh Dickinson University on a study examining sleep in the foster care environment, and with colleagues at Johns Hopkins on improving sleep for hospitalized children. Dr. Wolfson is one of the co-authors on the AAP 2014 Policy Statement on healthy school start times and co-edited Sleep Health’s special issue on school start times. Dr. Wolfson is an Associate Editor of Sleep Health and on the Board of Directors of Start School Later. In all of her sleep health projects, she loves engaging her students in her passion – sleep health research and interventions!

• Why sleep is particularly important for healthy adolescent development
• How sleep affects teens’ mental health, emotion regulation, and suicidality
• The biological changes that cause teenagers’ later sleep and wake cycles
• How we can use lessons from the pandemic to improve teens’ sleep health
• What students, parents, and guardians can do at home to get more sleep
• School-based practices to improve teens’ sleep, mental health, and equity

Wendy Troxel, PhD, Senior Behavioral Scientist – RAND Corporation, Adjust Faculty – University of Pittsburgh

• How sleep affects adolescent physical and mental health, suicide, and safety
• The biological basis for teenagers’ later sleep and wake cycles
• Why sleep is even more important during the pandemic
• What schools, parents, teachers, and students can do to improve teens’ sleep
• Why sleep-friendly school hours are essential for adolescent sleep health, learning, and equity, and how one superintendent of schools made them happen

Rafael Pelayo, MD, Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences – Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine

Dr. Pelayo is a clinical professor at Stanford University and the author of How to Sleep. Since 1993 he has been a part of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic. He teaches the popular Sleep and Dreams undergraduate course and co-authored the textbook with Dr. William Dement. He serves in leadership positions for the National Center for Sleep Disorders Research at the NIH, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation, Start School Later, and is the incoming president of the California Sleep Society.

Chace B. Anderson, PhD, Superintendent – Wayzata Public Schools, Minnesota

Dr. Anderson has been the superintendent of Wayzata Public Schools since 2008. He encourages a dynamic learning environment through great teaching, personalized learning, and technological advancements. Prior to Wayzata, he served as assistant superintendent and building administrator for Edina Public Schools and has held numerous education positions including building principal at the pre-K, elementary, middle, and high school levels and as a teacher and coach in Minnesota and Nebraska.