What is childhood insomnia?
Insomnia, i.e. difficulty falling or staying asleep, also frequently affects children, known as infantile insomnia or infantile sleep disorders. Sleep needs vary in each child, so there is no homogeneous pattern of how many hours a child should sleep.
What are the symptoms of childhood insomnia?
Childhood insomnia occurs when a child regularly has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night. If the child is tired and/or sleepy during the day, this is also a sign of childhood insomnia.
What are the causes of childhood insomnia?
There can be several causes of childhood insomnia:
- Bad habits: being used to having stimuli to sleep (parents, light, story…) and not being able to fall asleep when waking up.
- Stress: irregular schedules, family problems, separation anxiety, childhood fears, overactivation.
- Medical causes: allergies, pain (otitis or colic), enuresis (involuntary urination), chronic diseases (diabetes, asthma, headaches), medications.
Can childhood insomnia be prevented?
This disorder can be prevented by educating the child’s vital rhythms. To do this, it is necessary to establish routines before bedtime and maintain them over time. In this way, the child is prepared for rest.
What is the treatment of childhood insomnia?
The treatment will depend on the cause. In the case that the origin is medical, it is necessary to go to the specialist to treat the pathology. On the other hand, if the cause is bad habits, the best treatment is the re-education of the child’s sleeping habits, which consists of the parents firmly and affectively applying behavioral rules, such as keeping the room quiet, dark and at a good temperature, not going to the child immediately if he/she wakes up and starts crying, leaving the child alone when he/she is asleep again, among others.