China’s Children’s Sleep Medicine Research Collaborative Group has conducted a survey on children’s sleep problems, and the results were shocking: 27% of children aged 2 to 12 have sleep problems! This means that a quarter of children have different degrees of sleep problems. What is the normal amount of sleep for children? The normal amount of sleep varies by age group Newborn: 20 hours, Infancy: 14-15 hours, Preschool: 12 hours, School age: 9-10 hours. What are the sleep disorders in children? According to the causes and clinical manifestations of sleep disorders in children, there are three types of sleep disorders in children. 1. sleep disorders: including difficulty falling asleep, frequent night awakenings, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, episodic sleep disorders and other diseases. 2.Altered sleep: including sleepwalking, nightmares, somnambulism, night terrors, etc. 3, pathological sleep: refers to sleep disorders caused by physical and mental diseases. What is obstructive sleep apnea syndrome? What symptoms should be considered as a possible problem with the child’s sleep? Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is characterized by the onset of partial or complete upper airway obstruction during sleep, usually manifested as hypoxemia and hypercapnia. Nocturnal symptoms: snoring, labored breathing, throat choking, apnea, open-mouth breathing, sleep disturbance, excessive sweating, limb twitching, sleep talking, teeth grinding, sleepwalking, night terrors, and enuresis during sleep. Daytime symptoms: dry mouth in the morning after waking up from sleep, headache, daytime irritability, grumpiness and hyperactivity in young children, poor concentration in class, poor relationship with classmates, mental depression and drowsiness in older children. What conditions can lead to obstructive sleep apnea in children? Diseases related to upper airway obstruction such as tonsillar hypertrophy, proliferative hypertrophy, rhinosinusitis, and severe laryngeal cartilage tenderness can cause obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in children. What are the adverse effects of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome on children? 1. Children have increased susceptibility to diseases, and are prone to frequent respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal infections. 2.Some children develop enuresis, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc. 3.Lack of concentration during the day, reading ability and comprehension ability are significantly reduced, followed by poor academic performance. 4.Temperamental, misbehaving, and interpersonal difficulties 5.Concomitant symptoms or complications: If sleep apnea syndrome is not effectively solved for a long time, children will have the following adverse consequences, such as slow growth and development, jaw and facial development abnormalities such as geodesis and small jaws, and gastroesophageal reflux. How should a child with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome be treated? The first step is to bring your child to a pediatric sleep clinic where the doctor will perform the necessary tests to help determine the diagnosis. For example, a lateral nasopharyngeal film, sinus CT, 24-hour ph-impedance monitoring, nighttime sleep monitoring and other relevant tests are needed to consider proliferative hypertrophy. The doctor will determine the next step of treatment for your child based on a comprehensive analysis of clinical symptoms and test results. What should I do if my child has poor sleep? 1. Develop good sleep habits. Develop a regular sleep and rest schedule and stick to it. Avoid excitement before bedtime or watching frightening TV programs, and reduce the overload of study. For children with sleep walking disorder, it is important to prevent accidents such as falling out of windows. 2.Create a good sleeping environment. It is important to provide a good sleeping environment for your baby, with appropriate temperature, low light, comfort and calmness, and do not change your baby’s sleeping environment frequently. Do not turn on the light when sleeping, indoor air circulation, do not eat too much before bedtime, etc. 3, fully understand the baby sleepy want to sleep signal. Let your baby go to bed when he or she is sleepy but not asleep to help him or her learn to self-soothe and relax and fall asleep naturally. 4, moderately increase the amount of exercise during the day, not only can enhance physical fitness, but also can promote the balance of brain neurotransmitters, improve the quality of sleep. 5.Sleep in the right position. Pay attention to adjust the sleeping posture and pillow height of the child to maintain a good sleeping posture (side-lying position) and the appropriate height of the pillow (about 10 cm). 6.For children with recurrent sleep disorders, they should go to regular hospitals for standardized and systematic examination and treatment under the guidance of professional doctors.