Childhood Insomnia: Sleep Like a Child

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:52:57 +0000

There is a vast amount of information about insomnia both in print and on television. It seems that hardly a commercial break goes by without an ad for some sort of sleep aid with a long warning about possible side effects. In fact, more than one third of American adults suffer from some sort of sleep disorder.

Less well documented is the number of children who experience insomnia, which is described as the inability to fall asleep, to stay asleep, or both. More astoundingly, 15 percent of children actually walk in their sleep.

Childhood insomnia is thought to be less of a diagnosis than a symptom of other problems. For instance, medical professionals note that many children with ADHD also have sleep problems and some believe that it is the lack of sleep that can contribute to the actual attention deficit disorder. Conversely, medication given for ADHD can also result in sleeplessness and the resulting daytime tiredness maintains a vicious circle.

Psychiatrists assert that juvenile insomnia can also be caused by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD, bi-polar disorder or depression. Again, it is difficult to tell whether, for instance, depression causes lack of sleep or vice versa.

In any case, for most parents the dilemma is really what to do to allow their children to get the rest they need. There is currently no sleep medications on the market specifically designed for children and it is certainly dangerous to use adult medicines to treat children for any condition. It is commonly considered proper to try to use behavioral therapy first before resorting to pharmacological methods to treat childhood insomnia.

There are, however, other avenues to pursue, and one of those is that of a homeopathic approach. Our grandmothers may not have been too far off base when they prescribed the good old hot milk sleep aid. Milk, like that Thanksgiving turkey dinner that makes you doze off, contains tryptophan. In addition, it is thought that the warm milk not only subconsciously reminds us of when we were infants and could “sleep like a baby,” but it could also be that the few degrees of warmth causes the body to produce a slow down response much as it might on a hot summer day when we can’t seem to get our energy up. Just make sure the warm milk is not the caffeinated chocolate variety.

Other remedies for insomnia in children include chamomile tea, magnesium or calcarea phosphoric, all of which are free of side effects.

Sleep Insomnia » Childhood Insomnia

Childhood Insomnia: Sleep Like a Child