You said that you were concerned about your child's sleep problems. You said that your child has times at night
when s/he seems to stop breathing. You said your child does not sleep very well because of this. You also said
that this leaves your child feeling very sleepy during the day. Your child's sleeping problems may be due to a
sleep-related breathing problem. Some children with these problems have Breathing-Related Sleep Disorder.
Your child is probably very tired during the day-much more than other children his/her age. Your child is so sleepy
because s/he wakes up a lot at night in an effort to breathe normally. Your child may be most tired when s/he is
doing something like reading or watching television. Taking a nap may not help your child feel more rested. In
addition, s/he may have a dull headache after napping.
Your child may have one or more of the following breathing problems when s/he sleeps:
Short moments when s/he stops breathing
Very slow or shallow breathing
Breathing so slowly s/he is not getting enough oxygen
The signs of a breathing related sleep problem can be hard to see in young children. Some of the following things
may be signs that your child has breathing related sleep problem:
Snoring
Bed wetting (especially in a child who never wet the bed before)
Very sleepy during the day
Trouble sitting still
Can't stay on task
Trouble learning at school
Breathing through his/her mouth during the day
Trouble swallowing
Speech problems
This disorder is often seen in school-aged children with big tonsils. Middle-aged, overweight men also often have
this problem. Adult men are 8 times more likely to have this problem than are women. In children, the same number
of girls and boys have this problem. This problem may run in families.
Adapted in part from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) (1994) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual for Primary Care (DSM-PC) (1996).