Growing children need at least 9-12 hours of undisturbed sleep daily. Sleep deprivation or disturbed sleep may negatively affect their cognitive skills, affecting their performance in school, gameplay, and extracurricular activities.
According to our specialists, lack of sleep in children may further cause:
Behavioral problems
Mood swings
Decreased learning abilities
Lack of concentration
Lethargy and inactivity for the whole day
Poor daily performance at school
Children who wake up from sleep at night often throw tantrums to go to school and become jittery. Parents must look for the following signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation in their kids.
Snoring
Breathlessness
Bedwetting
Restlessness
Sleepwalking
Yelling due to nightmares.
These symptoms could be due to various sleep disorders like:
Obstructive sleep apnea
Sleepwalking and sleep talking
Sleep nightmares
Insomnia (the most common presentation)
Delayed sleep disorder
Restless leg syndrome
Experts emphasise that a proper diagnosis will help your child recover early from sleep disorders and increase their overall happiness index. In addition, the child’s sleep quality will improve, leading to an overall improvement in their personality, attention and grasping power.
The diagnosis and evaluation of the child's sleep disorder are broken into the following modules to understand a broader view of what is causing the child's sleep disorder.
Face-to-face interview with the child and parents
The preliminary consultation is always important for both parties, i.e., the child and the doctor. In the preliminary examination, the doctor would like to learn about all possible sleep disorder symptoms exhibited by the child and also try to diagnose what causes them.
Diagnostic tests
Diagnostic tests will include EEG and polysomnography to accurately identify the sleep disorder's causes. It also includes documents of the parents' medical tests to learn about their history of sleep disorders.
In several cases, sleep disorders like sleep apnea, sleepwalking, and insomnia are hereditary. Therefore, our therapist would identify the cause and provide the best possible sleep disorder treatment in Dubai.
Comprehensive behavioural and sleep pattern check
The most common cause of sleep problems in children is behavioural insomnia. Children suffering from sleep disorders typically manifest symptoms like inattentiveness, jittery behaviour, or poor cognition. A comprehensive analysis of a child’s behavioural pattern, and sleep examination, allow our experts to learn more about the child and conclude
The types of sleep disorders present in the child
The severity of the sleeping disorders
Treatment plan
An accurate diagnosis helps the therapist to outline an apt treatment plan. The treatment may include medications and therapies to reduce sleep disorder symptoms and their frequencies.
Children often undergo a lot of stress due to exams, peer pressure, or stressful parental relationship. So, our therapists at Neuropedia, one of the best sleep disorder clinics in Dubai, ensure the factors causing stress to a child are reduced.
A comparative study improvement is made throughout follow-ups, and the report is updated. The treatment plan aims to instil behavioural improvements in the child, such as:
Increased sleep
Reduced frequency of symptoms of sleep disorder
Improved social and cognitive skills
Parents can help their children follow the treatment plan and guide them with sympathetic actions, such as:
Spending more time with the child
Encouraging children to share stress-related problems with you
Giving them a warm sleep environment (make their bed, tell them bedtime stories, etc.)
Avoiding heated conversations with your partner in front of the children
Promoting their relaxation
Limiting their screen time and instead encouraging them to play with friends (game-plays are a great stress buster and help in better sleep).
Occasional sleep deprivation in kids is common and tolerable. But if it repeats randomly and causes significant behavioural changes in your child, you can consult Neuropedia, for sleep disorder treatment in Dubai and Sharjah.