Sleep Deprived Children

I’ve just learned that children can be sleep deprived. I thought this term was used for adults or for people who are being tortured, but children, especially tweens and teens, can have serious sleep issues that put them in the category of being sleep deprived.

My daughter, Sammi recently had a sleep study done and that is her diagnosis. We are shocked. We knew that she’s been sleepy, weak and having trouble concentrating, but that diagnosis hit us hard. In the same vein, it may be the answer to a lot of the troubles she’s been having at school and possibly her sudden medical problems.

She’ll be scheduled for another sleep study and then a day study where she takes naps and is monitored. I hate that she is seeing new doctors, going to the ER, staying overnight at sleep labs and just having to deal with this, but if we are going to get some answers and help her in her struggles at school (which are brand new this year), we are looking forward to the results.

Some of you have mentioned that the photos of Sammi don’t look like the same girl you are used to seeing and it’s true. We’ve noticed that she has circles under her eyes and doesn’t smile often. She is not only sleepy, but moody (more than the typical adolescent moody), unhappy, “out of it” and her grades are dropping because she says that she can’t concentrate.

Learning that she is sleep deprived has opened our eyes to what she is going through and we are bound and determined to get things fixed. Have any of you dealt with any type of children’s sleep disorders? Please share.