For you and your child, a more important question than “How much sleep does my child need?” is “How do I know if my child is getting enough sleep?” If children show symptoms of being sleepy during the day,
they are likely not getting enough sleep, regardless of how their sleep duration stacks up against the average child. Sleep quantity is not the only factor to be considered. Sleep quality can also play an important role in determining if your child gets enough good sleep. We can approach an answer to this question by determining symptoms of inadequate sleep and poor quality sleep.

Mistaken Symptoms
When adults are sleepy, they generally look fatigued. In adults, it is easy to recognize the symptoms of fatigue, but this is not always true in children. When children are tired, some may look fatigued like an adult, but others may not look sleepy and instead exhibit other symptoms, which are, at times, the apparent opposite of being tired:

1. Irritable
2. Inattentive
3. Hyperactive
4. Low tolerance to frustration

These symptoms of inadequate sleep may be misdiagnosed as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or a behavioral problem. If your child displays these symptoms, you should first think about his quality and quantity of sleep. Try to determine if he is getting enough sleep or if anything is disturbing his sleep. Is he showing any signs of breathing difficulties at night, which could be the signs of sleep apnea disturbing his sleep? Talk to your doctor about these concerns. If he is getting adequate sleep, without any signs of sleep problems, then you can evaluate with his doctor other causes of these symptoms.

Gail was 4 years old when her parents brought her to our sleep clinic. At that time, she resisted bedtime, which was usually at 8:00 p.m., and by the time she settled down and fell asleep, it was usually 10:00 p.m. Gail attends an afternoon preschool program, and because her mother works from home, she can sleep until 9:00 a.m., therefore getting 11 uninterrupted hours of sleep.

During the day, Gail is a happy, well-adjusted child, but her parents worry that she is not getting enough sleep to stay healthy. After further discussion, ittwas apparent that Gail was not showing any signs of sleep deprivation. She was sleeping within the average for her age category (between 11 and 13 hours).

One of the reasons that Gail was able to get enough sleep (which would not apply to all families) is that her mother works from home, and, therefore, she is able to sleep later in the morning. Gail’s parents were reassured to hear that she was getting enough sleep and learned from attending the clinic that the important question is not “How much sleep should my child get?” but rather “What are the signs that my child is not getting adequate sleep?”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 10:35 am and is filed under Insomnia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.