Assessment and treatment of common pediatric sleep disorders.

Abstract

Current evidence indicates that chronically disrupted sleep in children and adolescents can lead to problems in cognitive functioning. Behavioral interventions for pediatric sleep problems (e.g., graduated extinction, parent education, positive bedtime routines), especially in young children, have been shown to produce clinically significant improvements. This review describes a few pertinent conditions of sleep disorders in children and adolescents as well as provides clinically useful approaches to sleep complaints and both pharmacologic and nonpharmacological treatments of some common pediatric sleep disorders.