Sleepless Kids Are Troubled Kids

25% of U.S. youngsters find it tough to get their zzz's, experts say.

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Sunday, August 26, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

SUNDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- The nightly trip to dreamland is a frustrating one for millions of American children suffering from insomnia, night awakenings and even sleep apnea, experts say.

"Across every study, 20 to 25 percent of children have some kind of sleep problem," said Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "That spans everything from kids who are waking during the night, to resisting bedtime, to sleepwalking, disordered breathing -- the gamut," she said.

One 2004 National Sleep Foundation poll found that, among children under 11, 60 percent experienced some kind of sleep trouble at least a few nights a week, Mindell said. "And 74 percent of parents said they wanted to change something about their child's sleep," she added.

So, parents awakened in the night by a sleepless child have lots of company nationwide. One big culprit: sleep apnea, which occurs when blockages in the airway trigger snoring and frequent nighttime awakenings.

"About 2 to 3 percent of children will have sleep apnea," said Mindell, co-author of Take Charge of Your Child's Sleep. "About 10 to 12 percent of kids snore on a regular basis, but not all children who snore have sleep apnea. In children, the primary cause of obstructive sleep apnea is enlarged tonsils or adenoids."

In most cases, tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy offers a quick fix for pediatric sleep apnea, Mindell said. But there's another contributing factor that's rising in prevalence -- obesity. "In obese kids, what you're getting is the tonsils and adenoids being big, and then the weight on the neck closing the airways," she explained.

The daytime drowsiness that comes with sleep apnea can greatly affect a child's mood, daytime alertness and academics. One 2006 study in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine found that youngsters with sleep apnea scored lower on standard IQ tests compared with unaffected kids -- an average of 85 points vs. 100, respectively.

Left untreated, sleep apnea might even permanently damage cognitive function, the researchers said. "We can only assume that it could turn an otherwise smart kid into a mediocre kid," lead investigator Dr. Ann Halbower, of the John Hopkins University Children Center, told HealthDay.