Zarzaur Law, P.A., an award-winning personal injury law firm based in Pensacola, Florida, is proud to announce that they will be partnering with the Abed4Me Foundation and will also be the presenting sponsor of the 2023 “Night of Dreams” event to be held on October 1, 2023, at the Niceville Senior Center in Niceville, Florida.
The event raises needed funds for the ABed4Me Foundation’s ongoing mission to ensure that children have a place of their own to sleep each night. They understand the critical role of sleep in a child’s development, health, academic performance, and self-esteem. ABed4Me qualifies each child and provides a bedding kit at no cost to the families. The foundation addresses this essential need, as they believe every child deserves a bed.
“A Bed 4 Me is excited to partner with Zarzaur Law and name them this year’s event sponsor of our annual Dinner of Dreams fundraiser. Their support allows us to provide more beds to children who are without an adequate sleep space. A Bed 4 Me has been providing beds since 2016 after recognizing there was a gap in filling this need. Children are sleeping on the floor, couches, or air mattresses. Bed poverty is real, and we are working to solve that problem in our area. Every child deserves to have a proper sleep space—a spot to call their own—so they can rest, play, study, sleep, and dream. Businesses such as Zarzaur Law help make a difference.”
Diane Freeman, Executive Director, A Bed 4 Me Foundation
Children are sleeping on the floor, couches, or air mattresses. Bed poverty is real, and we are working to solve that problem in our area. Every child deserves to have a proper sleep space—a spot to call their own—so they can rest, play, study, sleep, and dream. Businesses such as Zarzaur Law help make a difference.
Child Bed Poverty Affects Thousands in the US
Did you know that 1 in 5 children live in poverty in the US, and many of these families cannot afford beds? Children often have to share a small bed with their parents or siblings, sleep in a sleeping bag, or simply sleep on the floor.
Children are the highest age-based population in poverty in the US. Twenty-two percent of kids in America live below the poverty line—the highest percentage among developed countries. Child poverty affects children’s nutrition, self-perception, behavior, and more. But, with sleep being one of the most important things that humans do, bed poverty perhaps takes one of the biggest tolls on poor children.
Sleep and Child Bed Poverty
As you can imagine, not having a bed leads to poor nights of sleep, lower sleep quality, and even sleep deprivation. This is especially harmful for children because, statistically, they need more hours of sleep per night than adults do; they need those hours to refresh their brains.
Lack of Sleep Can Harm a Child’s Health
The average child sleeps for 13 months during the first two years of life. All this sleep helps a baby’s brain develop. As children grow older, they need fewer hours of sleep—10 to 12 hours a night for preschoolers and at least nine for school-age children—but the importance of sleep doesn’t diminish.
Hoi See Tsao, MD, a pediatrician in Boston, Massachusetts, and a study co-author, called this chronic sleep loss “a serious public health problem among children.”
The Health Effects Of Too Little Sleep
The dangers of not getting enough sleep go beyond mere academic performance, experts say.
For one thing, lack of sleep combined with greater exposure to germs at school makes it more likely a young person will get sick.
“Your physical health can begin to take a beating when you skimp on the nightly rest you need,” Sujay Kansagra, MD, the director of Duke University’s pediatric neurology sleep medicine program in North Carolina, told Healthline.
Developmentally, A Lack Of Sleep Is Also Problematic.
“Young people, especially teens, are still developing their frontal lobe and decision-making skills, but when sleep deprivation is exacerbated, your frontal lobe is most impaired,” Kansagra said.
“This can cause mental function to be reduced, similar to that of a drunk person, where decision-making processes are delayed and impaired, attention is shortened, and memory functioning is decreased,” he said.
The effects can be more than memory lapses, too.
“Sleep-deprived kids have more behavioral problems, more academic problems, more health problems, more risk-taking behaviors, and more anxiety and mood-related problems,” Lynelle Schneeberg, PsyD, an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine and director of the behavioral sleep program at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, told Healthline.
In addition, she said, “Sleep-deprived kids have more sleep terrors, nightmares, sleepwalking, and bedwetting.”
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About Zarzaur Law, P.A.
Joe Zarzaur is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Attorney whose firm has been dedicated to promoting community safety since 2007. OUR AREAS OF PRACTICE: Serious Personal Injury, Product Defect, Auto Accidents, Cycling Accidents,Medical Malpractice, Motor Vehicle Accidents, Products Liability, Wrongful Death, Boat and Jet Ski Accidents, Slip and Fall Injuries, and more Licensed in Alabama and Florida. Offices in Pensacola, Miami, Destin, and Tallahassee. www.zarzaurlaw.com
About ABed4Me Foundation
The ABed4Me Foundation serves children ages 2–18 from low- to middle-income families. After a referral and introductory visit are completed, they provide new bedding (a twin mattress, bed frame, pillow, sheet, and comforter set) to children who do not have beds due to economic struggles and a lack of financial resources, as well as displaced families starting over due to domestic issues. Since 2018, the Bed4Me Foundation has provided more than 2,000 beds at a cost of $300 per bed per child per month. www.abedforme.org
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Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/children-lack-of-sleep-health-problems