1. Educate Yourself on Pediatric Sleep Disorders
There are many different types of pediatric sleep disorders. In general, children can suffer from most of the same disorders adults do. The difference is that children often do not have the language or awareness to express their sleep problems. That's where parents come in. Parents should monitor the sleep habits of their children and learn about the different sleep disorders that exist.
The most common pediatric sleep disorders fall into 5 basic categories--sleeplessness, sleepiness, parasomnias, breathing difficulties and sleep schedule problems. The sleeplessness includes insomnia, problems going to bed, waking up at night and problems with napping. The sleepiness includes narcolepsy, trouble waking up and excessive sleep and tiredness during the day. Parasomnias are sleep disorders characterized by partial arousal and confusion. These include night terrors, sleepwalking and bedwetting. Snoring, sleep apnea and unusual sleep breathing fall under the breathing difficulties category. Finally, if your child can't sleep at night or at naptime, and has problems functioning in the daytime, there may be sleep schedule problems. Talking to your pediatrician about the symptoms you are noticing may be enough to solve the problem in some mild cases. Sometimes a minor adjustment to a child's routine is all that is needed to see improvement.
2. Keep a Sleeping Journal for Your Child
For more moderate to severe sleep disorders, it may be necessary to keep a sleeping journal for your child to track her sleep habits. The journal should note when your child goes to bed, when she wakes up and how many times she woke during the night. It should also keep track of the pre-bedtime routine including anything she ate or drank before bedtime. Naps should also be logged in the journal. If your child has a problem with sleepiness, keep track of the times throughout the day when she is feeling tired and if there are any times when she is alert. The more information you can provide the doctor about your child's sleeping habits, the better able the doctor will be to diagnose a sleep disorder.
3. Have an Overnight Sleep Study Done
A sleeping journal may not be enough for your doctor to diagnose your child's sleep disorder. In some cases, your doctor may request an overnight sleep study or a series of sleep studies be performed. In an overnight sleep study, your child will be put to bed at the hospital or sleep center. While sleeping, your child's brainwaves, breathing patterns and sleeping habits are monitored. Videotaping of your child sleeping may also be done. Sleep studies are often used to diagnoses sleep apnea, a condition characterized by pauses in breathing while sleeping. Sleep studies provide doctors with first-hand data about your child's sleeping issues in order to make a diagnosis.
