Rosemary’s Thoughts

You might be astonished to find out that there are a number of kids sleep disorders that prevent them from attaining the rejuvenating sleep they require. It is said that an average of thirty percent of youngsters have challenging sleep troubles in their tender years.

These types of sleep problems can include sleep walk, night terrors and even certain forms of sleep apnea and insomnia. Children in their school-aged years are going to require anywhere between nine hours and twelve hours of sleep in a given night but unfortunately, many children get considerably less than that.

There are other sleep problems such as grinding of the teeth, bed wetting, even head banging and rolling are considered to be sleep disorders if they occur during sleep. The most usual of these sleep troubles come in the form of nightmares and walking in their sleep but they are generally considered harmless.

Parents should be extra careful about sleepwalking to make sure that they keep tabs on their child’s problem so it doesn’t get the child hurt. This takes some work to ensure there are no dangerous areas around the home. In most cases, the child will outgrow the common sleep disorders they may face by the time they reach their teenage years.

It is important to seek the advice of a health care professional in the case of head banging, bedwetting, night terrors, teeth grinding, and sleep apnea symptoms. These symptoms could be signs of worse problems if they continue to happen well beyond the average age of the child. Fortunately, the majority of these conditions have an age where the average child will have outgrown them.

Start considering your child has a sleep disorder if the child has problems concentrating in class. There may be times when they doze off in the middle of conversations, when traveling, or while reading or in class. These could potentially be signals that your child is having difficulty sleeping during the night. For cases where you think your child may have sleep apnea consider the following symptoms, chronic mouth breathing, and problems with performance in school or restless sleep.

The best things about these types of sleep problems is that they happen to be the easiest to treat and for the most part consist of illnesses and disorders, which can be treated. Until your child begins exhibiting signs which endanger them you can then be assured that children will outgrow their maladies over time. However, if you are still having concerns then talking to your doctor can give you a number of suggestions on what you can do in the home in order to put your child on the right track.

You must consider that in children with troubled sleep there can be physical and mental conditions which may come into play when a child is experiencing one of these disorders. Your doctor may refer you to meet with a licensed mental health professional to rule out any other mental problems.