My 18 year old son

My son has very tramatic temper outbursts, about once a month. More recently he got in a fight with his 15 year old brother. The fight was very physical hitting etc.


He had his worst tantrum today, he hadn't eaten anything until 2:00 this afternoon. He worked from 9-2:00.

Also he has problems falling asleep at night, usually he is up past 12:30 and up by 6:30-&:00

My question is would his blood sugar level have anything to do with this type of behavior? And would the amount of sleep?

Thank you for your help,
Ed

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Mr. Brink,

While low blood sugar and insufficient sleep are probably not the major contributing factors to your son's temper dyscontrol, there is little doubt that they are, at least, exacerbating factors.

Sleep deprivation (and your son should be receiving approximately eight hours of sleep per night) and low blood sugar generally result in lower tolerance for frustration, greater irritability, increased aggression, less concentration and motivation, and lower resilince and energy. All taken together can mean greater volatility and reactive angry reactions.