Is your child having trouble sleeping? Recent studies show that children who have insomnia are likely to continue to suffer from this condition even as adults. Learn more about it here.
In this article, you’ll read:
- Study: Children with insomnia are likely to suffer from the condition up to adulthood
- Signs that your child may have insomnia
- Natural remedies and treatment for child insomnia
As parents, we know that sleep is essential to our child’s physical and mental development. This is why we make sure that our child gets enough sleep to keep him healthy and to help him be focused and alert during the day.
At a young age, we try to inculcate good sleeping habits in our children and protect them against things or factors that may disrupt their sleeping patterns, such as giving them caffeinated drinks during the day or letting them have screen time at night.
No matter how difficult it may be to get them to sleep sometimes, it seems that we really have to work on making sure our child adopts these good bedtime habits. Because according to a recent study, children who are experiencing insomnia symptoms are more likely to suffer from them even when they are not kids anymore.
Study: Insomnia can persist up to adulthood
According to a new study published in Pediatrics Journal, children with insomnia symptoms are likely to persist with them as young adults and are more likely to develop into a sleeping disorder in early adulthood compared to children who do not have difficulty sleeping.
The research led by scientists at Penn State College of Medicine looked at how insomnia symptoms evolve over time as a child grows into adulthood. It was a long-term study which began in the year 2000 and has just been published last week.
The team found that 43 per cent of children with insomnia symptoms continued to suffer through adolescence into adulthood. Meanwhile, only 15 per cent of children who did not have insomnia symptoms developed the sleeping disorder in their adolescence and persist into adulthood.
“The key finding of this study is that insomnia symptoms in childhood are much more likely to persist over time than we previously believed,” said Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at Penn State.
“Those with insomnia symptoms and laboratory-measured short sleep duration are much more likely to evolve to develop a clinical condition in early adulthood, and not just to persist with the symptoms.
So, parents and clinicians should not assume that insomnia symptoms are benign complaints that will go away with age. That’s not what our study shows for a significant proportion of youth,” he added.
The professor said that many adults who have insomnia may actually have had undiagnosed sleeping problems as a child.
“Although adults’ sleep issues tend to be triggered by their most recent life stressors, for some people, their insomnia may track back to sleep problems starting in childhood,” he said.
While the team did not dig deeper on the underlying causes for the children’s sleep issues, they said that the primary causes for these are typically behavioural such as when a child could not sleep without a parent in the room, separation anxiety, psychiatric and behavioural disorders, autism or mood disorders and other medical conditions.
Because of these findings, the team suggests that childhood insomnia symptoms require early intervention, to address chronic sleep issues as soon as possible, and avoid the negative effects that this sleeping disorder brings.
“We know that poor sleep is related to adverse health outcomes,” said Fernandez-Mendoza.
“We suspect that many children who experience insomnia symptoms that persist into adulthood will also suffer from some negative health consequences,” he added.
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Does your child have insomnia? Here are the signs to watch out for
So, how would you know if your child is just going through a phase of staying up late or he’s already suffering from a sleeping disorder?
According to the website of Boston Children’s Hospital, here are some of the symptoms of insomnia in a child:
- bedtime refusal and struggles going to bed
- frequent “curtain calls” after lights out (such as requests for drinks, hugs or stories)
- difficulty falling asleep once in bed
- frequent or prolonged night wakings with difficulty returning to sleep independently
- waking earlier than desired
- resistance to an appropriate sleep schedule
- difficulty napping
- trouble waking in the morning or getting up for school
Meanwhile, you can still look for the following cues during the day that may indicate that your child is having trouble sleeping at night:
- fatigue, tiredness, sleepiness
- inattentiveness or difficulty in concentration
- problems with academic performance and socialization
- irritability
- reduced motivation
- poor decision-making and impulse control
- low tolerance for frustration
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Home remedies for a child with insomnia symptoms
According to the study, the first line of intervention for this sleeping problem is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTI), which also demonstrated to be highly effective in youth, particularly in adolescents.
However, we don’t have to resort to that right away. For young children, we can opt to try some natural remedies and treatment, along with teaching good sleeping habits to combat the symptoms of insomnia.
Here are some things you can try at home to help your child sleep better:
Come up with a nighttime routine for your child. If you have an infant, a relaxing bath and singing lullabies or turning on the white noise machine can help your child know that it’s time for bed.
If you have a toddler or an older child, you can ask him for suggestions. Once you’ve come up with a plan, it’s much better to write it down or make a chart about it. List the steps in sequence — “Put on pyjamas, brush teeth, read books, cuddle, lights out” – so your child knows what to expect at bedtime.
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Spend some quality time with your child before bed.
Does your child insist on playing with you at night instead of going straight to sleep? Some children become unsettled at bedtime because they long for more time with their parents or caregiver. This happens especially when the parent is away at work the whole day, and they only get to bond at night, or when the child is experiencing separation anxiety.
So add some undistracted alone time with your child in his bedtime ritual. Spend a few minutes to ask your child about his day (focus on the positive) and give lots of affection while you’re at it.
If you have babies, 5 to 10 minutes of cuddling and making eye contact, singing or saying soothing words can do the trick.
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Stick to your child’s bedtime.
Up to age 4, our children rely on us to teach them how to sleep. So sticking to a set bedtime will help them get used to the habit.
Letting them stay up late or use gadgets at nighttime on weekends may disturb the circadian rhythm that will help them distinguish between time awake and bedtime. And much as you want to let them rest on days where they don’t have school, don’t let them sleep in for too long too.
Make sure that your child gets an adequate amount of sleep every day. Young kids need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night, so if they have to wake up early for school, make sure that their bedtime is early enough to allow them to get a full night’s rest.
Studies show that the bright light that mobile phones and tablets emit can disrupt one’s circadian rhythm, making it difficult to fall asleep. It also inhibits the production of melatonin and serotonin, the hormones responsible for helping one sleep.
So try to limit your child’s exposure to screens or gadgets during the day and prevent them from using their gadgets at least two hours before bedtime, and see if their sleeping habits improve.
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Refrain from giving sugar and caffeine near bedtime.
According to study, caffeine intake six hours before bedtime can reduce total sleep time by one hour. Another study said that it can delay the timing of your body clock. Not only that, caffeine has a lot of harmful effects on your child’s health.
So as much as possible, limit your child’s intake of caffeinated drinks and chocolate, especially when it’s close to bedtime. Stick to water instead.
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Increase intake of food rich in melatonin.
Rice, bananas, ginger, porridge oats, radishes, and tomatoes are rich in melatonin, which is essential to having a healthy sleep cycle. So try to increase your child’s intake of the said food. But don’t try to push your child to eat more at dinner. A heavy meal right before bed can lead to digestion problems, which make falling asleep more difficult.
If you think your child has insomnia or has trouble falling asleep despite your efforts, it’s best to talk to her paediatrician to determine what the problem is and find the appropriate solution for it before it develops into a long-term thing.
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