Wakeful children
Question:
Does anybody have any suggestions for a six year old child who finds it difficult to get to sleep at night and then feels extremely tired, during the day at school.This child is often awake still at eleven o’clock at night He also had slept poorly as a baby.Any advice???
Response:
There is a list of links to web sites that talk about sleep and sleep disorders at this URL (link): http://www.btinternet.com/~kemp.paul/mongo.html Section J is about children and sleep problems, although all of the other sections also apply to children as well as to adults. You might also want to check Section G, which is about Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). People with DSPS are night owls whose circadian rhythms are delayed, so that they naturally go to sleep later than normal but then follow normal sleep patterns (i.e., they sleep normally except that they go to sleep later and wake up later). These people have difficulties when forced to fit into a normal sleep schedule by school and work requirements. I am not a medical professional, so you should check with a doctor, preferably one trained in sleep medicine. Most US doctors know very little about sleep. Judging from comments from posters from the UK, I suspect the same may be true on that side of the pond, too. Kent Taylor – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Barbara Kerr wrote in message <884dt8$tg…@news7.svr.pol.co.uk>… >Does anybody have any suggestions for a six year old child who finds >it difficult to get to sleep at night and then feels extremely tired, during >the day at school.This child is often awake still at eleven o’clock at night >He also had slept poorly as a baby.Any advice???
Response:
Hi all, yes, in response to Mongo’s comments about the limited knowledge of the medical profession about sleep and its disorders, this is true. In the UK, there are perhaps less knowledgable health professionals countrywide. I can think of only four places in the UK where a person might get full and appropriate sleep studies performed. These are as follows: Dr John Shneerson- Sleep and respiratory support unit, Papworth Hospital in Cambridge Dr Adrian Williams- St Thomas’s Hospital London, Dr Neil Douglas- Edinburgh Hospital (sleep centre) in Scotland Dr Allen, who I think has a sleep centre in or around Nottingham (one of the hospitals in the Midlands). Professor Parkes- King’s College Hospital London is an authority on Narcolepsy, but unfortunately for us un the Uk, has retired from clinical practice; however, I believe he still carries out his research work. I know there is a study (research) due to commence soon this year, into Narcolepsy in children. The research will be undertaken/led by a Dr gregory Stores, in Oxford, England. Hope this is of interest/help to you. Regards, Cat
