Head of Family Medical Practice Pediatrician speaks at a seminar on a problem

Vietnam can’t afford to sleep on.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 13 May 2016:  Family Medical Practice’s Dr. Jonathan Halevy last week spoke at a seminar for parents and teachers where he raised the need for a wake-up call to parents on the alarming consequences that sleep deprivation is having on children around Vietnam.

This sleep deprivation manifests itself in a variety of harmful consequences, including poorer cognitive performance, issues with memory, motor function issues, depression, behavioral and other psychological disorders, as well as the child’s safety.

According to Dr. Halevy up to a half of all preschool children and 40 percent of adolescents are receiving less sleep than they need to, largely due to the high demands on the busy schedules of today’s children.

“When we combine the academic, social and sporting activities that children today have, with the prevalence of modern technologies, we are finding children sitting awake later and later into the night,” explained Dr. Jonathan, who has 16 years of pediatric medicine experience, including 12 here in Vietnam.

Dr. Halevy went on to say that in Vietnam the situation is particularly dire for several reasons.  “It is normal here to take little kids out with the family at night, walking the street; going to the cinema, coffee shops and sometimes even bars.  Many school aged children have an added extra curricular activities and homework and the nights can get quite long.  This is doubly problematic as the Vietnam school day can start as early as 6.30 in the morning – meaning that the child’s candle is burning at both ends.  So many Vietnamese children sleep much less than they should, and indeed in my practice I have seen a number of teenagers who average less than six hours a night – this is simply not enough.”

His wide ranging presentation covered an array of appropriate behaviors and routines for parents of children of all ages to deploy to build lifelong disciplines of healthy sleep.

“Routine, routine, routine,” Dr. Halevy said.  “Some very simple adjustments to a bedtime routine can make a world of difference for children of all ages.  We recommend a consistent bedtime so that sleep/wake routines develop naturally.  We recommend that technology is kept out of the bedroom – TV, laptops, iPads and mobile phones are all the enemies of solid sleep.  Finally, we recommend that caffeinated beverages are kept to an absolute minimum.”

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Family Medical Practice, the first foreign-operated, multi-disciplinary medical provider in Vietnam, opened in Hanoi in 1994 and owns and operates five modern clinics based in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC. FMP is the only private medical provider in Vietnam with such national coverage. All Family Medical Practice clinics have fully equipped ambulances described as “state-of-the-art emergency medical units” on stand-by 24 hours a day