Posted on: Sunday, December 30, 2001

Sleep troubles often go untreated

Advertiser staff and news services

If your child is exhibiting excessive fatigue or behavior problems, it may pay off to urge your pediatrician to take a closer look at your child's sleep patterns as a possible cause. One study says sleeping difficulties in children are going underdiagnosed by doctors.

Among 86 children who had a total of 103 sleep problems in one study, only 10 of the problems had been diagnosed, and only three were adequately treated, Dr. Ronald D. Chervin of the University of Michigan in Pediatrics reports in Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep problems included sleep-disordered breathing, periodic leg movements during sleep, insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep problems have been linked in other studies to difficulties in academic performance, physical development and behavior.