Cookies & Tracking Technologies Notification
This website uses cookies and tracking technologies to optimize your experience. Learn More
Pediatric Sleep Medicine Services
Our pediatric sleep medicine team is dedicated to helping infants, children, adolescents and young adults with sleep-related disorders. We work collaboratively with young patients and their families to evaluate sleep patterns, identify underlying causes of sleep disturbances and implement tailored treatment plans.
Conditions We Treat
We specialize in diagnosing and managing various sleep disorders, such as:
- Childhood insomnia (difficulty falling or staying asleep)
- Sleep-related breathing disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea
- Hypersomnia or excessive daytime sleepiness, such as narcolepsy
- Parasomnia, such as sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep eating
- Sleep-related movement disorders, such as restless leg syndrome, teeth grinding (bruxism) and head banging in sleep (rhythmic movement disorder)
Telehealth Visits also available. Learn more.
Childhood Insomnia
Childhood insomnia is difficulty initiating and/or maintaining sleep or early morning awakenings. Types of insomnia include:
- Acute insomnia — Sleep issues lasting less than three months
- Chronic insomnia— Sleep issues lasting more than three months
- Transient insomnia — Short-term; typically lasting less than one week
What causes childhood insomnia?
Childhood insomnia, or difficulty falling or staying asleep, can be caused by various factors, such as:
- Stress and anxiety
- Sleep environment
- Screen time
- Irregular sleep schedule
- Underlying medical conditions
- Mental health disorders
- Poor lifestyle choices
- Certain medications
- Caffeine
What are the symptoms?
- Excessive worrying about difficulty sleeping at night
- Trying too hard to fall asleep
- A decrease in daytime functioning
- Behavioral changes, including irritability and a decline in school performance
- Daytime fatigue
- Excessive caffeine use
How can I help my child?
- Ask your doctor to refer your child to a sleep specialist who can help you further
- Make sure you follow a healthy sleep practice, called “sleep hygiene”
Sleep hygiene
- Have a set bedtime and wake time
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule
- Avoid electronics at bedtime
- Establish a bedtime routine
- Avoid caffeine
- Create a good sleep environment
- Avoid naps for children over 5 years old
Diagnosis and treatment
- Your sleep specialist will schedule an initial clinic visit to learn details about your child’s sleep issues
- Depending on the evaluation, your sleep specialist may:
- Ask you to fill out a sleep diary
- Order a sleep study or polysomnography if an underlying sleep disorder is suspected
- Prescribe medications
Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders — Obstructive Sleep Apnea
What is obstructive sleep apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea is a breathing disorder that can affect your child’s breathing during sleep due to obstruction/blockage of the airway. Lack of restorative sleep can cause hyperactivity and impaired concentration at school, leading to a false diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
What are the symptoms?
- Snoring
- Sleeping in an unusual position, such as elevation of the head or propped-up position
- Apnea (breathing pauses) during sleep
- Coughing
- Gasping during sleep
- Sweating heavily in sleep
- Morning headache
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Not feeling refreshed in the morning
What should I do if my child has obstructive sleep apnea symptoms?
Ask your pediatrician to refer your child to a sleep specialist for further evaluation. A sleep specialist will see your child in the clinic and may order an overnight sleep study, called polysomnography.
What is a sleep study?
A sleep study is an overnight procedure and completely painless. Your child will not be alone. One parent can stay in your child’s room that night.
A team of sleep technicians will place some leads on your child’s head and body to monitor sleep patterns, duration and quality of sleep. In addition, leads will be placed on the legs and arms to detect movements. A plastic cannula will be placed under the nose along with belts on the chest and belly to monitor respiration and pulse oximetry, monitoring oxygen saturation.
The study will be video recorded. After the completion of the study, your sleep specialist will read all of the waveforms and provide you with the results.
What are the risk factors?
- Large tonsils and adenoids
- Obesity
- Genetic anomalies, such as Down syndrome
- Craniofacial abnormalities, such as micrognathia or retrognathia
- Neuromuscular disorders
What can happen if obstructive sleep apnea is not treated?
Obstructive sleep apnea can cause frequent drops in oxygen levels in the blood, which can cause heart failure in the long term. It can affect growth, development and school performance.
What are the treatment options?
- Lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise
- Surgical removal of tonsils and adenoids if they are enlarged
- Providing positive airway pressure through a mask (CPAP) to prevent airway blockage
The sleep specialist will discuss the options for your child’s sleep disorder.
Hypersomnia (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness)
Hypersomnia is the inability to stay awake and alert during the daytime, resulting in periods of irresistible need for sleep. It can result from sleep deprivation or a sleep disorder, such as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness, often accompanied by brief losses of muscle tone (cataplexy) and disruptions in REM sleep. People may not know they have a sleep disorder until it starts affecting their day-to-day life, work and school activities.
What are the symptoms of narcolepsy?
There are five primary symptoms of narcolepsy, including:
- Excessive daytime sleepiness (sudden, irresistible sleep episodes or “sleep attacks”)
- Sleep paralysis (unable to move for a brief period in bed, though awake and able to look around)
- Hypnagogic hallucination (seeing images or hearing sounds as you’re falling asleep)
- Cataplexy (becoming suddenly weak in the legs or anywhere else after laughing or being surprised by something)
- Disrupted nighttime sleep with frequent awakenings
How is narcolepsy diagnosed?
If you think your child is suffering from narcolepsy, please consult our sleep specialist. After a thorough medical history and exam, we may order an overnight sleep study to observe your child’s nighttime sleep in detail and rule out other sleep disorders that can disturb sleep.
Following the nighttime study, we will schedule a daytime nap test to see how quickly your child can fall asleep during naptime.
How is narcolepsy treated?
There is no cure for narcolepsy; however, medications for excessive daytime sleepiness and/or cataplexy may help. Additional methods to help a child with narcolepsy include:
- Patient and family education
- Extra support in school
- Healthy sleep habits
- Scheduled short naps
Parasomnia
What is parasomnia?
Parasomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal behaviors, movements, emotions or perceptions that occur during sleep, such as sleepwalking, night terrors, talking during sleep or confusional arousal (when a sleeping person appears to be awake, but their behavior is strange or unusual).
What should I do if my child has symptoms of parasomnia?
- Consult a sleep specialist; a sleep study may be recommended
- Follow healthy sleep habits
- Keep a sleep diary or journal to keep a record of sleep-related information, such as bedtime, wake time and naptime
- Install safety measures, such as locking doors and windows, removing dangerous objects and placing gates on stairs
What risk factors are associated with parasomnia?
- Family history of parasomnia
- Sleep disorders
- Sleep deprivation
- Poor sleep habits
- Medications
- Poor sleep environment
How is parasomnia treated?
Most cases are resolved with a proper sleep schedule and addressing the disorder’s underlying cause. A sleep specialist may need to order an overnight sleep study if other sleep disorders are suspected. In some cases, medications can help treat parasomnia.
Sleep-Related Movement Disorders
Restless leg syndrome
Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by an irresistible urge to move the legs, often accompanied by uncomfortable sensations, leading to difficulty falling or staying asleep.
What are the symptoms of restless leg syndrome?
A child with restless leg syndrome may experience various symptoms, usually at night, such as:
- Uncomfortable sensations described as crawling, itching, tingling or aching in the legs
- Sleep disruption (difficulty falling or staying asleep)
- Improvement with movement (relief is often experienced by moving the legs, stretching or walking
- Periodic leg movements (twitching or jerking of the legs when sleeping)
What happens if not treated?
- Your child may have difficulty sleeping well at night
- Due to inefficient sleep at night, your child may experience daytime sleepiness, mood changes, undesirable behavior and poor school performance
How to diagnose?
- Our sleep specialist will offer you a clinic visit to evaluate further
- History alone is usually sufficient
- If necessary, our sleep specialist may order some lab work and/or schedule an overnight sleep study if any other sleep disorder is suspected
What is the treatment?
- Establishing healthy sleep habits
- Avoiding caffeine
- Getting moderate exercise before bedtime, such as walking, stretching or massaging
- Taking an iron supplementation if there is an iron deficiency
- In severe cases, medication may be needed