Sleep Disorders In Children
Understanding Sleep Disorders in Children
Sleep disorders are common in childhood and can include parainsomnias, sleep-related breathing disorders, insomnia, hyperinsomnia such as narcolepsy and circadian rhythm disorder.
Parainsomnia is the objectionable experiences or physical events, at arousal from sleep or within sleep and will include behaviors, perceptions, sleep-related movements, emotions, dreaming and involvement of the autonomic nervous system.
Parainsomnia is categorized into three separate stages: NREM - non-rapid eye movement; REM - rapid eye movement and occurring clinically through the night interrupted by brief periods of awakens.
Sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder often sees the child seeking out a hard surface to rhythmically bang his or her head against upon waking, head rolling or rhythmically rolling their entire body. These movements are more common in infants and toddlers. Parent’s main concern is the child’s ability to hurt themselves. This can be avoided by placing padding around the sleeping area and listening carefully for the onset of the rhythmic banging or rolling to begin in order to prevent it from escalating.
Night terrors are something like bad dreams your child can not wake up from, even though they seem like they are awake. Many don’t even remember the incident the next morning. Night terrors are characterized by a loud and often piercing scream associated with intense fear, they may seem as if they are in a trance and not really awake which is often the case. They do not recognize their parents and will resist consoling or comfort. These night terror episodes usually last up to 15 minutes.
Sleepwalking behavior could be preceded by repetitive confused behavior resulting in walking or the child could run or bolt from a perceived threat upon waking. Children usually have loud vocalizations with this type of waking and it may only last a few moments.
Children experience sleepwalking more than night terrors and it is often difficult to hand on the parents’ part. Anticipatory waking may be used if there is a pattern of waking. Wake the sleepwalking child for 15 nights in a row, approximately 15 minutes before the episode usually occurs. Medications should be avoided unless prescribed by a doctor and this is only in rare cases where the sleepwalking is continual and uncontrollable.
The most common sleep parainsomnia in children for REM sleep is nightmares. Nightmares usually begin in children around the age of three and six years but can start at any age. They tend to occur later in the night because they are affecting the REM cycle and may happen more than once as there are several REM cycles per night.
Other problems that might disturb your child’s sleep is RLS - restless leg syndrome or PLS - periodic leg syndrome which are both characterized as the urge to move their legs and could keep them awake at night causing insomnia and tiredness during the daytime hours. Both of these syndromes had once been thought to only be prevalent in adults, but in the past several years, researchers have found many children who suffer from both RLS and PLS.
Children naturally have more NREM sleep in stages 3 and 4. Most disturbances are self-limiting and some reassurances are all they need. However, if the disorders continue into adolescence, intervention from a professional would be needed.
Author: Paul Hockney
Paul Hockney suffered from Insomnia for many years. Having researched Sleep Disorders he eventually found a treatment that worked. Find Free Advice and Sleep Disorder Aid reviews from Paul at http://www.HelpSleepProblems.com
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