Confusional Arousals

This is quite common in infants and toddlers. Episodes may begin with movement and moaning, and may progress to quite agitated and confused behaviour. The infant may cry intensely, toddlers may cry out and thrash about. Although the little one appears to be alert, they do not respond when spoken to.

This is quite an alarming situation for parents who may try to rouse the little one in an attempt to console them. It will take quite a bit to waken the child and trying to do so is only likely to prolong the arousal. If the child is woken there is also the possiblity that they are likely to be confused and upset.

These arousals can last five to fifteen minutes, only occasionally a little longer. The little one will calm by themselves and return to sleep once it is over. These events more commonly take place in the earlier part of night sleep, before midnight, but can occasionally happen later.

Preventing such occurances requires that the child has a good sleep/wake routine. Children who are overtired or have not had a good and regular sleep pattern are more prone to these events than those whose usual sleep pattern is good.

If you struggle with a child who frequently exhibits this behaviour, Contact Dream-Angus, we can help you to help your child to sleep better.

Night Terrors (Pavor Nocturnus)

Night terrors should be more accurately referred to as Sleep Terrors. They are a form of arousal which occurs in about 3% of children, usually in later childhood.

Typically parents are woken by a loud scream or sudden loud alarming noise from the child who is at the start of a sleep terror. The child appears to be awake, eyes wide open and staring, sweating profusely, with a rapid pulse and crying out as if terrified. The child may jump out of bed and rush about frantically as if fleeing some danger. Injury caused by bumping into things is a serious risk.

Usually the episode ends as abruptly as it began. The child goes back to sleep and has little or no memory of the event in the morning. If the child wakes at the end of the terror, then a feeling of definate threat may be expressed, but not a nightmare.

Such dramatic events do not mean that the child is ill. Trying to calm a child during such an event is pointless. The child is not aware of anything outwith this feeling of primitive threat. The best thing parents can do is to ensure that the environement is as safe as possible, wait until the event is over, and then resettle the child in bed.

Trying to discuss this in the morning will only make the child more anxious about themselves. Ensuring that the child has a good sleep pattern with regular and adequate sleep will reduce the frequency of these events. If, despite good quality regular sleep these events persist there are recognised effective behavioural methods for dealing with them. Medication is a last resort.

Most children will grow out of these events by adolescence. If your child experiences sleep terrors and you have concerns that they remain frequent despite following good sleep hyigene guidelines, contact Dream-Angus. We can help you to overcome this.

Things we thought we knew.....

It is interesting to see that some of the things we always thought we knew, are now being confirmed in scientific research.Check out this interesting link;-
http://bit.ly/cQU0BQ

If you would like help and support to improve your child's sleep,
Contact Dream-Angus.com

Seasonal sensitivities and disordered breathing.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that approximately two percent of otherwise healthy young children have obstructive sleep apnea, a common form of SDB that occurs when soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses and blocks the airway during sleep.

Most children with OSA have a history of snoring that tends to be loud, and may include obvious pauses in breathing, and gasps for breath. Parents often notice that the child seems to be working hard to breathe during sleep. The study involved a random sample of 687 children in grades K-5. Their parents completed a brief questionnaire, and each child was evaluated between June and November during an overnight sleep study in the sleep laboratory. Mild sleep-disordered breathing was defined as having an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of one to five breathing pauses per hour of sleep.

The most surprising thing about this study was the difference in the children's breathing during sleep, over the summer and autumn. Disordered breathing was increased over June to September and decreased from September through November. This highlights the importance of the need to be aware of the childs seasonal ensitivities and allergic reactions.

In the June 2009 issue of the journal SLEEP, Bixler and his research team reported that nasal problems such as chronic sinusitis and rhinitis are significant risk factors for mild sleep-disordered breathing in children. However, the extent to which allergies may promote a seasonal variation in sleep-disordered breathing still needs to be determined.

These findings impact on the medical and drug treatments which are used to treat children who experience disordered breathing during sleep.

Scots ditty /nursery rhythms

Not really a surprise.

A recent study of 8,000 children, published in a suppliment of the Journal of sleep and presented last week at a Professional Sleep Societies Conference, found that children with a regular bedtime perform better in a range of developmental measures.

Researchers found getting adequate sleep – at least 11 hours a night – was an important factor in four-year-olds’ development in the use of language, literacy and early maths ability, and a consistent bedtime resulted in the highest outcomes.

If you need help to improve your child's sleep, Contact Dream-Angus.com

Preventing Sleep Problems

In infants as young as two months, a definate sleep wake cycle has been demonstrated. Traditionally it is expected that from about three months of life, infants have a recognisable sleep wake pattern. How can parents help infants to develop an understanding of a good sleep pattern?

Babies learn to tell night from day when they are offered naps in normal ambient daylight with normal household noise. Your infant has listened to your breathing, heartbeat and digestion during their time in the womb. To suddenly have a silent world is strange and worrying. Background noise helps make sudden loud noise less upsetting. Don't close the curtains and darken the room at nap times.

Decide when you want your child to go to bed and when is a good time to wake up. Most families work on a 7am-7pm sleep wake cycle but there is nothing wrong with an 8am to 8pm pattern. Your child will live in your home in your lifestyle. Choose the times that best suit that lifestyle and develop recognisable routines so that your child can learn to anticipate what happens next. This makes the child secure and confident.

Young children have a very small window when they will settle to sleep quickly. Miss this opportunity and settling is a prolonged and difficult process. Learn to recognise your child's sleepy signals and to settle your child quickly.

Your routine before bed should consist of three things which you could do anywhere on the planet. These should be completed in the same order at the same time every night. Children learn by demonstration and repetition. This routine should not be longer than 30 minutes. Your child will quickly learn the order of this routine and know what is expected of them once it is completed.

Put your child down to sleep when they are calm and drowsy. If your child learns to settle by themselves you won't need to spend a lot of time with them to get them to go to sleep.

If you need help and support to teach your child to settle or stay asleep,
Contact Dream-Angus.com