Sleep disorders in children during childhood can affect the quality and quantity of sleep, which in turn affects their own health and development. Discover the most common.
During childhood, a series of sleep disorders can appear in children, which makes it difficult for them to have a pleasant and ideal rest so that the next day the child is rested and can resume their activities.
When children do not have a good night’s sleep, they usually show it with fatigue, bad humor, laziness when it is time to get up, crying for wanting to continue sleeping when they have to get up, they fall asleep in class, they do not perform in their activities, etc. These sleep disturbances problems often affect children.
Sometimes the lack of rest is due to the child’s resistance to going to sleep early, so it is necessary for parents to teach children schedules or routines for bedtime and that the child it must be internalizing and accepting.
Types of sleep disorders
Among the disorders we have to differentiate between dystonia’s and parasomnias. Dysomnias are alterations in the amount of sleep, such as insomnia, which is the difficulty of falling asleep or hypersomnia, which refers to the difficulty of staying awake, this disorder is associated with alterations of the central nervous system.
Parasomnias refer to alterations in the quality of sleep and occur while the child is sleeping. Among the parasomnias are sleepwalking, nightmares, night terrors, somniloquia, bruxism, and nocturnal boastful capitis.
The most common childhood sleep disorders
Infant insomnia
It is a disorder associated with difficulty falling asleep or once asleep, sleep is interrupted and is accompanied by a phase in which the child is awake. When this happens it is difficult for the child to go back to sleep alone without the help or company of their parents.
Among the causes that could be associated with insomnia may be poor sleep habits and changes or alterations in the baby’s routine.
Sleepwalking
It is an alteration in the quality of sleep and is characterized by a series of behaviors and behaviors that are manifested during sleep. The child sits on the bed, sometimes even gets up and walks around the house, at other times they get dressed and can even open windows or doors.
The child may not wake up while wandering and fall back to sleep without further ado, or he may wake up and remain disoriented for a few minutes. It is important not to wake him up, we gently take him by the hand and in a low voice we talk to him and put him back to bed. When they wake up in the morning they usually don’t remember anything about their wandering.
Childhood nightmares
Nightmares are a disorder that can appear at any age but has its greatest appearance during the first 10 years of life. When it occurs continuously, it can cause a child to have a phobia or fear of falling asleep. This disorder manifests itself with anxiety, which causes the child to wake up abruptly.
Night terrors
This disorder occurs when the child is already sleeping, it usually appears in the first third of the night (phase III and IV of sleep). The child wakes up abruptly, sits up in bed, talks and sometimes shouts loudly, makes rapid uncoordinated gestures, fixes their gaze. These behaviors are accompanied by other symptoms such as tachycardia, anxiety, sweating.
Both in the face of a nightmare and in cases of night terrors, parents should help the child to calm down, hug him and accompany him until he falls asleep again. When they wake up in the morning they don’t usually remember what happened.
Somniloquia
It consists of talking or making sounds while the child is sleeping. Sometimes what they say is not understood and in others it may be small conversations. When they wake up they don’t usually remember what they said.
Bruxism
Also known as “teeth grinding.” They are forced contractions of the upper and lower jaw due to movements of the jaw muscles. This can lead to tooth wear and jaw alterations. Although it appears during childhood from the age of three, there are times when adulthood is reached with bruxism.
