At any age, there are just three basic sleep problems (or complaints) Not sleeping well (“insomnia” or “sleeplessness”) Being excessively sleep (“hypersomnia”) Behaving in unusual ways or having strange experiences in relation to sleep (“parasomnias”). These sleep problems are not diagnoses or conditions in their own right, no more than are “breathlessness” or “pain.” In order for the correct advice or treatment to be decided, it is necessary to identify the underlying Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cause, ie, the sleep disorder. As mentioned earlier, nearly 100 sleep disorders are now officially

INCB024360 in vitro recognized, many relevant to children and adolescents. Choice of advice and treatment rests essentially on the patient’s sleep disorder. In a way that would be unacceptable in many other areas of medical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical practice, where the need to know the underlying cause of someone’s symptoms is considered axiomatic, sleeping difficulty is often treated (quite possibly doing Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical more harm than good) by means of medication without the cause of the problem being considered. The treatment of sleepless young children is an example of the point just made. Many of those who do not settle to sleep at bedtime or who wake

during the night demanding their parents’ attention are prescribed hypnotic-sedative drugs, such as antihistamines, despite

the evidence that they are usually ineffective and subject to other drawbacks.15 Despite its advocates’ claims, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical especially for children with a developmental disorder, something similar can be said about the use of melatonin.20 As the cause of the sleeping difficulty is often failure to have acquired good sleep habits, behavioral methods are much more appropriate for encouraging such habits or undoing bad habits.15,21 Unfortunately, parents PAK6 are Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical rarely taught ways of preventing or dealing with their children’s sleep problems, with the result that many suffer needless sleep loss and distress because the child does not sleep well. Changes in the pattern of sleep problems and disorders during development Parents and professionals need to be familiar with the kinds of sleep disturbance that their child might develop at different ages, and know that they are collectively common and that they can be prevented or helped, for the most part. Only the main forms of sleep disturbance are mentioned here. Infancy It is important to encourage good sleep habits from an early stage to avoid bad sleep habits later on.