Reasons Your Child May Not Be Sleeping

Sleep is important to all of us, but it's especially important for infants. When infants go to sleep, they start to create neural networks about what they've been learning during the day. 

It's estimated that as many as one in five children with disabilities have a sleep disorder, and that's higher than the rate of typically-developing children. Finding sleep interventions for these children is incredibly important so they can lay down their brain networks and continue to learn during their early childhood years.

It's important that if your child is having poor sleep, that first of all, we take you seriously. 

Causes for poor sleep include:

• Poor sleep hygiene

• Pain

• Reflux

• Epilepsy

• Muscle spasms 

There are different treatments for all of these.

Other babies, they may accidentally make abnormal, involuntary postures, which are big enough that wake them up. 

Other things that may affect sleep include:

1. Altered Vision- Children with low vision have different ability to process light, which might mean that their brain doesn't realize the difference as much between day and night, so it's difficult for them to fall asleep. 

2. Simple behavioral issues, like a routine

3. Medical Issues- A condition called apnea which makes it difficult for an individual to breathe continuously during the night

4. Night Seizures, which can be worse at night

If sleep is disturbed, the development of memory and learning can be disturbed. Over a long period of time, it actually affects academic performance at school. It can also affect children's behavior because they feel less able to cope during the day. 

Sleep is important for all of us. If your baby's having sleep disturbance, it's important that you, as a parent, feel comfortable to ask for help. Getting better sleep for your baby will help your baby, but will also help your quality of life.