Adults aren’t the only people who can be diagnosed with sleep disorders. According to a March 2014 article in the journal American Family Physician, up to 50% of kids will have some type of sleep issue.
“We often see sleep problems particularly in families with young children,” said HSHS Medical Group Pulmonologist and Sleep Medicine Physician Manjeshwar Prabhu, MD. “Children sometimes tend to have difficulty with bedtime. The bedtime process becomes a very prolonged process, which is stressing the parents out because they have to work the next day, and they don’t get to bed until the children are actually asleep. So this is a major sleep disorder in children, which affects not just the child—the patient—but also the entire family around them.”
Dr. Prabhu said that teens often lose sleep because they spend so much time at night on social media or playing video games. “This can affect concentration, can affect their ability to function during the day, because they’re withdrawing into themselves at night,” he said. “They wind up with poor grades; they’re actually very smart kids, but they’re underperforming, and that can affect their whole future.”
So when should you see a doctor about your child’s sleep issues? “When you feel the stress that you’re dreading the child’s bedtime because you know it’s going to be difficult, you should come talk to us,” Dr. Prabhu said.
If your child has trouble going to bed, falling or staying asleep or experiences excessive daytime sleepiness, it might be time to make an appointment with Dr. Prabhu. “We deal with the entire range of sleep disorders in adults and children,” he said. “Anything to do with sleep, we will see them.” He is accepting new patients at HSHS Medical Group Multispecialty Care - Decatur, located at 1770 E. Lake Shore Dr., Suite 105, in Decatur, Illinois. He is also accepting patients in Effingham, Greenville, Taylorville and Pana. To schedule an appointment, call 217-329-1000.