Anybody can be affected by sleeping disorders and children are no exception. As per research, approximately half a million children between the ages of 2 and 8 are affected by sleeping disorders. Children may experience restless sleep cycles and as a result of these interruptions they may feel lethargic or fatigued in the daytime. Child sleeping disorders are accompanied by feelings of irritability, restlessness, fatigue and the inability to concentrate and affect their overall daytime performance in school and other activities.

Types of child sleeping disorders:

Night Terrors: This is a slow wave sleep disorder. Here individuals, especially children awaken from deep sleep with signs of intense arousal and powerful feelings of fear. Yet they have no memory of any dream relating to these feelings. Night terrors seem to occur mainly during Stage 4 sleep.

Nightmares: Almost everyone experiences nightmares at some point of time. These occur during the REM sleep and often can be vividly recalled.

Somnambulism: This sleeping disorder is also known as sleep walking and about 25 percent of children go through one of more episodes of sleep walking at some point. This is a slow wave sleep disorder and is characterized by suddenly waking up to realize that the child has gotten out of bed and has walked elsewhere into another room, kitchen etc. It appears to be linked to disturbances in the functioning of the autonomic system, which plays a key role in regulating brain activity during sleep.

Sleep Apnea: This is a rather disturbing sleep disorder in which individuals actually stop breathing when they are asleep. This causes them to wake up and since the process can be repeated hundreds of times each night, apnea can seriously affect the health of the child suffering from it.

Sleep Bruxism: This sleeping disorder is characterized by the involuntary grinding or clenching of the teeth while sleeping. It can lead to various types of deformities in the teeth.

Enuresis: This sleeping disorder is also known as bedwetting and is very common among children. In this disorder the child does not have any control over his/her urinary functions while sleeping.