Improving Sleep in Children

Loss of sleep in children has a detrimental impact on relationships, education, and behavior. Often the ruined rest is due to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which can be challenging to identify. A group of researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario have created a new tool that can be used to diagnose sleep apnea in children.

Researchers have known that adults who have a neck with a large circumference are more likely to receive a diagnosis of OSA. The challenge was to develop a set of standards to compare neck circumferences for children aged 6 to 17 years.

Pediatricians can use this standard to evaluate children at risk to develop OSA, which leads to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, emotional control problems, loss of focus, and poor behavior. Ask your pediatrician to measure your child's neck to ensure that he or she is not above the 95th percentile.

Wellness Wednesday - Sleep and Your Children

It's no surprise to anyone that poor sleep interferes with our performance. If I'm too tired, I lose things, have trouble controlling my temper, and struggle to think. New research has revealed that children's school performance is also impacted by both the quality and quantity of their rest--to the point that they may appear to have a disability when they don't.

How does sleep impact education? Sleepiness impairs attention, and it can also impact working memory and memory consolidation.

Sleepiness causes inattention, which may be confused with ADHD.

Snoozing helps working memory for children and teens. Think of working memory as the train that moves information from short term memory (which lasts seconds) to long term memory for storage. Insufficient shut eye effectively derails your train.

In addition, not enough sack time also prevents memories from being consolidated. Kind of like shoving papers randomly into a file drawer where they are more difficult to find. Knowledge gets into the brain, but can't be easily found.

Many of those with disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability may also experience sleep problems. These difficulties exacerbate the underlying challenges.

How can you tell if your child has a sleep problem?

• Check on your child half an hour after bedtime to be sure he or she is not using technology too late or unable to fall asleep.
• Listen periodically for snoring during the night. 
• Check to see that your youngster is not sleepy when riding in a car or sitting in class. 

If you suspect a problem with adequate rest, you may want to ask your pediatrician to do a screener or a full polysomnographic study. There are medications and other procedures that can improve their slumber. For example, many children with sleep apnea may be cured by having their tonsils and adenoids removed. 

The only wrong move is to ignore it completely.