Sleep disorders – they can occur in both adults as well as children. If you’re worried about your child’s sleeping schedule and can’t seem to get it on track, then you need to consider the possibility of a sleep disorder. Here are all of the sleep disorders in children you need to know about with their symptoms so you know when to visit a sleep center Damascus MD.

Sleep Disorders In Children

Insomnia

Insomnia is basically the lack of sleepiness. When your kid goes to bed, they might lie down, but then they will feel the following things:

• Inability to fall asleep
• Waking up feeling tired – obviously
• Being tired but not able to slip into a deep sleep
• Having a very choppy sleep

If that is happening to your child too, then you want to consult a sleep specialist. It might be a change of routine or having something stimulating before bed that is causing your kid to experience insomnia. The trick is to treat it right away before it turns into something chronic.

Sleep Walking

Kids can sleep walk at night too. This is bad because if they bump into something, they can wake up, and then they won’t know how they got there and it is a very disorienting feeling.

Symptoms include walking aimlessly in the middle of the night, not having any recollection of how the kid went from being on the bed to somewhere else, etc. Treatment includes:

• Restricting the movement of the kid
• Making the house safe so that the child doesn’t get hurt
• Monitoring the kid at night so that nothing bad happens

Sleep Apnea

Kids can also lose their breath while they sleep. The main symptom of sleep apnea is the stopping of breath for a couple of seconds before it goes back to normal again. This can be really scary, especially if you witness this happening as a parent.

This is basically a very common sleep disorder in kids and it can disrupt the sleep. Here are the ways by which you can treat them include:

• Using a CPAP machine on kids
• Having a routine
• Changing up the sleeping position, etc.

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Excessive daytime sleepiness is like taking naps throughout the day, but sleeping more than you intended. This is what happens when your child doesn’t get enough sleep at night, and then they will doze off in the morning when they have to go to school or do their homework. Symptoms include the following:

• Not sleeping at night
• Excessive sleeping during the day
• Being confused and in a daze

Your kid’s normal life activities are being affected, so introduce the habit of having a set daily routine to turn things around.

Night Terrors

Children who have trauma can experience night terrors a lot. They are vivid dreams that can literally make them sweat and jump up from their sleep in horror. This is bad because the kid will obviously be scared and they won’t be able to fall back asleep. Symptoms of night terrors are:

• Having vivid dreams
• Waking up very anxious and scared
• Not falling asleep because of fear

In order to treat night terrors, you have to find the root cause of the problem. Healing the child’s trauma will do wonders for night terrors in the long run.

Bruxism

Bruxism is known as teeth grinding. This is also something that a lot of kids do when they’re asleep. If you sleep with your kid, then you might notice the very uncomfortable gnashing sound of teeth grinding together. This is really bad. Symptoms include:

• Grinding sounds coming from your kid’s mouth
• The working of the jaw when the kid is asleep
• Stopping and starting randomly

So, Bruxism is bad because children are prone to breaking their teeth if they grind it too much. Seeing either a pediatrician or a sleep doctor Columbia is crucial because they will tell you what to do. Whether to give your kid a mouth guard or wear something else to bed that won’t grind the teeth to nothing.

Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless leg syndrome is the movement of the legs when you’re sleeping. This is really common in kids and it is something that they don’t even realize that they’re doing. The legs will move on their own and even though your kids won’t be able to notice anything, anyone else who sleeps beside the kid will notice each and every thing.

This is really bad and if the movements are too jerky, then it may cause your kid to wake up in a very confused state and then they won’t be able to fall back asleep. Symptoms are as follows:

• Jerky movement of the legs
• Waking up suddenly in the middle of the night with a twitching leg
• Not being able to sleep again

Restless leg syndrome is also not very life-altering, but it still can be troublesome to lose sleep over the fact that your leg has a mind of its own and it won’t stop with the jerking and moving constantly, especially at night.

This calls for cognitive therapy in kids and they might also have to build a routine in order to have some bearings on their sleep schedule, because losing sleep will not do.

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

Delayed sleep phase syndrome is pretty self-explanatory. It is a disorder in which your circadian rhythm or the biological clock, is delayed by a few hours. This means that when kids fall asleep, they will wake up a bit later than usual. If they sleep two to three hours later than their normal time, then they will wake up a couple of hours late too.

This is not life-threatening by any means, but it is still very bad for kids, because it messes up their routine and they can be late for school. Symptoms include:

• Waking up and falling asleep later than usual.
• Being tired even after sleeping a couple of extra hours
• Not having a routine

For the treatment, your doctor will probably try to get your biological clock back on track by certain things like making your room darker or brighter to alter the brain or even having you stick to a strict routine.

Periodic Limb Movement Syndrome

Another movement-related sleep disorder that is really common in kids is periodic limb movement disorder. This is kind of like restless leg syndrome. But the main difference is that there is a sudden and jerky movement of the limbs while you’re sleeping, like a random bounce of a leg or your hand. This is enough to shake you awake and then you won’t be able to fall asleep. The symptoms of this sleep disorder include:

• Waking up suddenly in a confused state
• Not being able to go back to sleep
• Being tired all day long

If that happens, you want to see a doctor as soon as possible and go over possible treatment modes like changing up the routine, naturally making your kid tired, and other things in the same line.

Conclusion

Sleep disorders can be very hard to deal with – and with children, it’s a whole different issue. So, now you know exactly what they are, along with their symptoms and treatment modes. Visit a sleep clinic Frederick these symptoms frequently.