James Maas' book offers sleep advice for children

By Roger Segelken

Before James B. Maas, Cornell professor of psychology, achieved national recognition as a sleep researcher and educator, he was a parent, and he knows all about that ploy children use for postponing bedtime: following every parental answer with another "but why?"

Professor James Maas poses in his Uris Hall office with his new children's book, Remmy and the Brain Train: Traveling Through the Land of Good Sleep. Charles Harrington/University Photography

So Maas' latest book, Remmy and the Brain Train: Traveling Through the Land of Good Sleep, illustrated by Guy Danella and including a read-along, sing-along CD by composer/songwriter Suzanne Scheniman, provides plenty of reasons why the 4- to 8-year-old set should get a good night's sleep.

"'Because I'm your parent and I say you need more sleep' is never going to cut it with the kids," said Maas. "I knew from experience that you need reasons that will resonate with young people about why adequate sleep can improve their alertness, mood and performance."

Those scientifically insightful answers come from Doctor Zeez, the conductor of a special train that transports young Remmy in his dreams. The youngster has fallen asleep, wondering why he is uncharacteristically groggy at school -- and why an otherwise bright lad is having trouble with mathematics, spelling and even remembering names.

The persuasive Doctor Zeez (voiced by author Maas in the CD version of the story) convinces Remmy that plenty of deep sleep (both the deep and the REM, or rapid-eye movement, kind) is not only energizing but is essential for processing newly acquired information and storing it in a retrievable part of the memory. Far from vegetating, the mind goes on a fantastic journey during the various periods of sleep, Remmy discovers. Developing good sleep habits makes the child stronger, smarter, happier and healthier.

That's the same advice Maas offered in Power Sleep, his best-selling book for adults, and that he delivers to the sleep-deprived everywhere, including national television audiences, corporate executives and the 65,000 Cornell students he has taught in introductory psychology classes for 38 years.

And ever the educator, Maas can't resist giving a quiz on the official Remmy web site www.remmyweb.com. Fill in the missing letters: Most d_e_ _s happen in _ E _ sleep. That's also when m _ _ or _ traces are made.

For those who slept through Remmy or through introductory psychology class, the answers for the words with missing letters are: dreams, REM and memory.