Two sleep disorders that occur in children are nightmares and night terrors. Most children experience nightmares which are considered part of the normal developmental process. Nightmares can occur as soon as age two. They are most common in children between three and twelve years old. Very few children experience night terrors, as little as 3 percent have them. These sleep disorders can be very frightening to a child and may leave them in tears.
Nightmares
Several hours after you go to sleep you enter the REM stage of sleep, during this stage of sleep is when nightmares occur. During REM there is a general body paralysis and active dreaming. Although most dreams are good dreams there are some dreams that may be so frightening that they wake the child up.
Children most often can remember the dream when they awake in the morning. This nightmare sleep disorder only becomes a problem if the child has a problem going to sleep, is scared to go to sleep or is becoming sleep deprived. Remember to stay calm and be reassuring at all times if your child has a nightmare, if you become worried or frightened your child will react the same way.
Believe it or not there are ways to prevent nightmares. Keep a relaxed bed time routine. Find something comforting to do with your child before putting them to bed, weather its reading to them or telling them a story. Avoid letting your child watch a scary or violent movie hours before they go to bed. These often cause nightmares as well. Your child may have a severe emotional problem that you don’t know about, these nightmares may indicate that.
Night Terrors
During the first few hours of sleep in the deep non- REM sleep is when night terrors usually occur. Most often they occur at the same time every night. If your child wakes up screaming, crying or moaning they may be having a night terror. They may also sit straight up and scream, and although their eyes may be open they are still asleep. Unlike night mares, there will be no memory of this night terror or what happened during the night. Night terrors can last from 10 minutes to over an hour. Their heart rate will increase and they experience rapid breathing.
If your child is having a night terror do not try to wake them or comfort them. The best thing you can do is make sure they are safe and no harm is being done while they are having this night terror. There are several things that can contribute to night terrors including staying up extremely late, being overly tired, eating a heavy meal before bed time and some medications may also contribute to night terrors. Night mares and night terrors may seem very scary to the child and parent but they are not harmful and they are not a sign of any sort of mental illness. Children outgrow these sleeping disorders within a few months or years.
Nocturnal eating syndrome or NES is a sleep disorder which is not frequently found, but when it does occur, it is more often in women than men. It is a sleep-related food disorder and is also known as a parasomnia as it disrupts a persons sleeping.
Nocturnal Eating Syndrome At A Glance
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Usually people who have nocturnal eating syndrome are light sleepers. They have compulsive raids on the refrigerator at night and often feel that once they awake they will not be able to fall back asleep unless they eat something. This feeling causes them to raid the refrigerator and eat. Nocturnal eating syndrome is a sleep disorder and an eating disorder combined with insomnia.
Sleep related eating disorder is also more commonly found in women then men and involves sleepwalking. When having an episode of this sleep disorder people will eat while they have a partial arousal from deep sleep. They will often eat very unhealthy or strange things that they would not eat on a normal basis. They may eat frozen pizza, raw cookie dough, peanut butter on fish and maybe even dog food. They are usually very sloppy and careless when eating or preparing their food and will wake with cuts or burns the next morning. It’s very hard to wake a person during an episode and they will usually have no recollection of this episode in the morning. When people have a sleep-related eating disorder there is no link to hunger when they awake, even if the person eats right before they go to sleep an episode may still occur.
NES Causes
The cause of food related sleep disorder is not found but there have been several triggers identified. Lithium, a medication prescribed to stabilize your mood and the benzodiazepine receptor zolpidem are two of the triggers. People who suffer from mood and personality disorders or psychological problems may be at higher risk for food related sleep disorder. People who suffer from other sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder or narcolepsy are at higher risk also.This food related sleep disorder is considered more of a sleep disorder than an eating disorder. People who have sleep- related eating disorder may have a history of sleepwalking.
NES Treatment
Treatment may include prescribed medication and is often very effective. Medications that may be prescribed include antidepressants, dopamine agents, anticonvulsants and opiates. Once your sleepwalking is stopped the trips to the refrigerator also go away. Also melatonin can be found in many natural sleep aids have helped people with NES - Nocturnal Eating Syndrome. Melatrol natural sleep aid, contains melatonin.
People who have nocturnal eating syndrome are often over weight because of their high calorie intake. Being over weight may lead to other sleep disorders including obstructive sleep apnea. Getting treatment from a medical or mental health professional is very important for good health in the treatment of nocturnal eating syndrome, or try a natural sleep aid.
