Could a sleep disorder be the root cause of your child’s struggles in the classroom? A child could have ADHD due to an undiagnosed sleep disorder. The most common sleep disorders that affect children include obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and narcolepsy, as well as insomnia and delayed sleep phase syndrome. Obstructive sleep apnea in kids is usually due to enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Restless leg syndrome can run in families or be due to low iron levels. In other sleep disorders in children, youngsters may not be obviously sleepy. And insomnia in children can be behavioral, due to negative sleep associations in the bedroom, or due to a delay in the melatonin peak that signals when it is time to go to sleep (known as delayed sleep phase syndrome – common in teenagers). If any of these issues exist with your child, when is it time for them to undergo a sleep study? Here to address these and other concerns related to sleep disorders in children is Lewis Milrod, M.D., a pediatric neurology sleep medicine physician at The Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J.
