Sleep Disorders in Toddlers

To sleep peacefully, is to sleep like a baby. But babies too have disruptive sleeping patterns. Sleep disorders in toddlers are very common, which differ in severity. Your toddler may often wake up in the night, screaming or crying. If your child regularly walks into your room in the middle of the night, it's not a scary situation. Your toddler, walking or crawling into your room for help in the night, is a positive sign. At least, in this case, the child knows that something is wrong. Sleep disorders in toddlers require different treatment as compared to adults. There are two types of sleep disorders in toddlers. One, which is caused by abnormality of polysomnography and other by immaturity of nervous system. Read more about baby sleeping.

Sleep Disorders in Toddlers

Night Terrors
Night terrors are also known as pavor nocturnus. These are episodic in nature and occur 90 minutes into sleep. Sleep disorder symptoms make the child wake up in the middle of the night and sit bolt upright. The child may begin to cry inconsolably for 30 odd minutes, before falling back asleep. These are the basic sleep disorder symptoms. You may witness signs of tachycardia or tachypnea to a certain extent. Night terrors occur between the age of 3-8. They usually arise from stress or fatigue, which needs to eliminated by careful observation of child's environment. Night terrors are different from nightmares. Read more about

• Night Terrors in Babies
• What Causes Night Terrors

Sleepwalking and Sleeptalking
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism and sleep talking, also known as somniloquy is frequently seen in boys, than in girls. These are sleep disorders in children more than being sleep disorders in toddlers. Such disorders, make the child to sit up in bed with eyes wide open. Although the eyes are open the child cannot see. Speech of the child is mumbled and dimmed. Sleepwalkers have a physical threat, like ramming onto doors and pillars or falling down a flight of stairs. While intervening sleepwalkers, parents should refrain from shaking or slapping the child. Maintain a diary of the time your child wakes up, what he/she talks and how long does the episode last. To help such toddlers sleep disorders, wake the child up, completely, 15 minutes prior to the episode and let him/her stay awake for at least five minutes. This technique will help your child deal with the sleep disorders. Read more about

• Sleepwalking Causes
• Sleepwalking in Children

Bedwetting
Bedwetting is also known as nocturnal enuresis. It is a very common toddlers sleeping problems. Bedwetting is categorized as primary when the child is mostly dry through the night and secondary when the child begins bedwetting after a year of continence. Primary enuresis may have its root in the family history, whereas, secondary enuresis happens due to developmental problems. Toddlers sleeping problems such as nocturnal sleep enuresis can be solved by making the child use the bathroom before the parents go to bed or limiting fluid intake before sleeping.

Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea affects 1-3% children. Of all the sleeping problems in toddlers, sleep apnea affects the breathing of the child. Snoring, breathing through mouth and difficulty in breathing are some of symptoms of sleep apnea. Enlarged tonsils or adenoids often become one of the causes of sleep apnea. While the child is sleeping at night, the airways may get temporarily blocked, preventing air from reaching the lungs. Allergies also trigger sleep apnea in children. Sleep apnea in toddlers may lead to problems in growth, learning and behavior. Removal of tonsils/adenoids will provide your child relief from sleep apnea. The other way of dealing with sleep apnea in toddlers is to use continuous positive airway pressure machine or CPAP, which is a type of mask. This mask allows the airway to open up to bring about normal rhythm of breathing.

Secondary Sleep Disturbances
Secondary sleep disturbances in toddlers are more common in toddlers than the above listed primary sleep disorders in toddlers. Night awakenings and bedtime resistance are frequently seen examples of secondary sleep disturbances.

Most new born babies cry after night awakening and find comfort only after a parental response. Usually after a year, 60% to 70% of toddlers are able to fall asleep by themselves. Sometimes, rocking the child to sleep can cause a child to have problems in going back to sleep after waking up in the night. Sleep disorders in toddlers diminish as they begin to grow up. Given a chance, most babies and toddlers will develop a technique to fall asleep on their own.