Diagnosing Child Sleep Disorder Hinges On Adult Tolerances
There are many problems in determining if a child sleep disorder is present in a child due to the tolerance levels of the parents and the understanding of sleep patterns in children by the parents and the physician. The attitude of the parents plays a big role in diagnosing and treating any child sleep disorder, but before the type of problem can be isolated, it is important to understand the sleep patterns of children.
For instance, many parents bring home their newborn understanding they will wake up often throughout the night, but after two months may expect their child to sleep during the night. This may be misunderstood as a child sleep disorder, but the reality is that it is normal. During the first two months, the child's sleep pattern is not divided into day and night, rather their total sleep time is broken into segments of about two hours. It can take as long as three years before the sleep hour segments are consolidated into a sleep pattern more closely resembling that of an adult.
Some of the most common child sleep disorders include somnambulism, sleepwalking, somniloquy, sleep talking and nocturnal enuresis, bed wetting. While these child sleep disorders can be troubling and in some cases dangerous to the child, they typically outgrow them with time.
Steps To Help With Sleep Disorders
Parents with a child suffering from somnambulism fear their child can get up in the middle of the night and hurt themselves or others. While this child sleep disorder does not always cause them to be found wandering the house, the probability remains they will and should be helped. Similarly, children who talk in their sleep, somniloquy, will appear to be awake and carrying on a conversation while they are still in sleep mode.
Parents should keep a log of when the child is in one of these periods and after seeing a pattern of time they can wake them up on purpose to help them skip that night's session. Those with the child sleep disorder of bed wetting can help be limiting the amount of liquid the child has for two or three hours prior to bedtime.
If the child sleep disorder continues past the eighth birthday the doctor may being to look at other problems associated with the child sleep disorder. Obstructive sleep apnea is a more serious disorder that the doctor can will need to take other steps to eliminate.
