Art imitates life. Again.

Denise worked with another patient last week: an adolescent male with ADHD and difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep.  As she always does, since she is perfect, Denise reminded the patient and parent that there should be no chocolate or caffeine consumption prior to lights out and that lights out would be at 10PM.  The patient's father was aghast, since the patient would not, could not, will not go to bed before 1AM.  Sleep Lab rules, Denise said, in the nicest way imaginable.  Let's try it this way for tonight.

A little later, Denise returns to the patient's room only to find crumbs that look suspiciously like CHOCOLATE littering the bed.  Oh, says the patient, I had my nightly CHOCOLATE POP TART.  Um, what was it about "no chocolate" that you didn't understand?  And, Trixie would like to point out, Pop Tarts are the work of the devil and contain nothing but chemicals and high fructose corn syrup, which are bad for you.

Anyhoo, after applying the usual 1000 electrodes and sensors to the patient, Denise prepares the patient for lights out.  And this boy, with his chocolate Pop Tarts and ADHD and inability to fall asleep before 1AM, gets out his cell phone and his iTouch and his Nintendo DS and prepares to fall asleep as he usually does: that is, by NOT sleeping and by STIMULATING his brain with all of this electronic paraphernalia.  So, Denise, bless her heart, turns all of the stuff to the OFF position and leaves the patient and his father sulking.

Lo and behold, the patient was asleep within FIFTEEN MINUTES.  Yet another cure for the Sleep Tech Moms.