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What happens at a sleep clinic?
Doctors at the Sleep Center start by taking an extensive sleep history from the parent and examine the child in the clinic. If necessary, they observe a patient in the sleep lab, a comfortable room where the child is monitored for a few hours or overnight. To help the child relax, a parent also stays in the room, and normal bedtime activities are performed. As the child sleeps, vital signs are monitored, including brain and muscle activity, eye movement, heart rate, oxygen levels, airflow and chest and abdomen movement. |
Children need to develop healthy nighttime sleeping habits so they can enjoy their days. Trouble at school is often the first sign that something is wrong.
"If a child is having behavior problems at school, parents should investigate how well the child is sleeping at night," said Dr. Daniel Glaze, chief of Texas Children's Sleep Center. "Good sleep is necessary for good daytime function."
Parents most often bring their child to the Sleep Center for one of three reasons: The child doesn't sleep well at night, sleeps too much during the day, or suffers from breathing problems during sleep.
The most common disorder seen in the center is obstructive sleep apnea. Patients with this problem stop breathing intermittently during the night -- as often as 20 to 30 times an hour -- causing them to awaken briefly. While adults with sleep apnea are sleepy during the day, Glaze says children with this disorder often suffer from attention or behavior problems. Sometimes caused by an obstruction in the throat, sleep apnea is often cured by removing the tonsils.
Another, more rare, sleep disorder is narcolepsy, a neurological problem that affects the brain's ability to regulate sleep. Children with this disorder experience uncontrollable attacks of sleep several times a day but sleep well at night.
"Children with narcolepsy immediately go into REM (rapid eye movement) or dream sleep, rather than progressing from NREM (nonrapid eye movement) or slow-wave sleep to REM sleep," said Glaze. "Although there is no cure for narcolepsy, good sleep habits, regularly scheduled naps and stimulant medication can help."
Sleepwalking, seen most frequently in children between the ages of 4 and 8, usually occurs about an hour after falling asleep. Since children generally outgrow sleepwalking, medical treatment is seldom necessary, but safeguards to prevent injury, such as window locks and gates across stairways, may be needed. Attaching a bell to the child's door can alert parents to a sleepwalker's wanderings.
Night terrors are often more frightening for parents than children. The child wakes up crying or screaming and may be flushed or sweating, but he or she normally settles down after a few minutes and has no memory of the event.
Parents often can help a child sleep well by establishing a bedtime routine, said Glaze.
