Sleep disorders can occur not only in adults but in children as well. However, treating children with sleep disorders can be a lot more difficult for many reasons. First, it can be hard to tell if a child is suffering from a disorder or just a temporary problem. Some parents don’t even know that there are child sleep disorders, except for the occasional sleepless night. Furthermore, some parents may notice the symptoms but purposely ignore them, thinking that these signs are just normal behaviors that children go through.

Fortunately, a large number of children don’t need to undergo professional treatment because they can overcome the disorder on their own. Practically all experts think that natural remedies, as compared to psychological treatments, are the most effective ways of helping children. For example, there are natural sleep aids for children that can be used instead of prescription medications.

Symptoms of Sleep Disorders in Child

If you are a parent who is wondering whether your child is suffering from a problem, some of the signs that you may want to look out for are difficulties in falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night, constant nightmares, teeth grinding, and night terrors. Children with a sleep disorder can recover from these symptoms if you monitor what they are eating, especially when it is so close to bedtime.

For instance, you may want to prohibit eating candies or other sweet foods after dinner because these will raise your child’s energy levels, making them restless when it is time for the body to rest and relax. Sleeping shortly after dinner time is also not advisable because it can fill up the bladder while sleeping or cause nighttime tummy rumbles.

Nightmare

Exposing the child to anything that triggers excitement like watching a suspense movie, can also cause nightmares or night terrors, which are two completely different things but can both disrupt a child’s sleep. Nightmares are usually remembered, even vaguely, by a child upon waking, whereas night terrors are usually not remembered at all. Night terrors can be frightening to the parents as well because the child stays in an incoherent state several minutes after waking up, during which no one would usually be able to break their daze.

Bruxism

In the case of teeth grinding, also known as Bruxism, experts say that this is usually exhibited by children with sleep disorders that are due to intense feelings like anger or frustration that the child is keeping under wraps during their waking hours.

Sleep disorders should not be ignored, even if they do not seem to be too serious to you. There are natural remedies for many common sleep disorders, so you can always try natural solutions to solve minor problems, but again, make sure you see a doctor if you have any concerns.