Why do people need to sleep?

This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from VPR.

I'm Jane Lindholm.

On this podcast, we take questions from kids just like you all over the world and we find answers.

We've heard from a lot of you who listen to podcasts when you're winding down and getting ready for bed.

So it makes sense that a lot of you are inspired to send us questions about sleep.

Why do people toss and turn when they're asleep?

When you're getting into the deep sleep, your body somehow wakes you up by kicking in.

It feels like you jump really hot.

Why is that? I don't want to get out of bed in the morning and when it is nighttime, I don't want to go to bed.

In this episode, we are answering your questions about sleep.

Did you know there are doctors who focus specifically on helping kids sleep better?

We found one of them at National Jewish Health. That's a hospital in Colorado.

My name is Dr. Lisa Meltzer and I am a pediatric sleep psychologist, which means I work with kids to help them sleep better.

Do you feel like you sleep pretty well? Do you think, oh, yay!

When the adults in your life tell you it's bedtime or do you struggle to get ready for bed and maybe even struggle to go to sleep or to stay asleep?

Dr. Meltzer says there are a few things that all of us can do to help us on the path to good sleep.

Kids have a very consistent, a time and wake time, so that means you go to bed about the same time every night and wake up about the same time every morning.

We recommend things like not having any screens in your bedroom, having a bedroom that's nice and cool and dark in a place that you like to sleep.

Things like that that are very consistent what we would call sleep health.

Well, let's jump right into some of our questions because we have a lot of kids who have sent us questions about sleep, but we're going to start with the basics.

Hi, my name is Ira and I live in South Orange, New Jersey.

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