Sleep disorders in children and adolescents
Abstract
A recent telephone survey of 1125 adolescents aged 15-18 from France, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy found that about 20% were sleepy in the daytime, 25% had insomnia symptoms, and 4% met established criteria for an insomnia disorder.1 2 Sleep-wake disorders are common and have an important impact on the quality of life of children, but if they are promptly recognised and treated the outcome is favourable. Alertness is the inherent ability of the brain to sustain attention and wakefulness with little or no external stimulation;3 sleepiness results from impaired daytime alertness.
To review issues pertaining to childhood sleep-wake function, we selected Cochrane reviews and key original articles pertaining to sleep neurobiology and childhood sleep-wake disorders, and used our own clinical experience in writing this review.
Whether a person is awake or asleep at any given time depends on the net balance between the circadian drive, which facilitates wakefulness, and the homeostatic drive, which facilitates sleep.4–6
The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus is the circadian timekeeper (biological clock); it receives photic input from the retina and regulates the timing and length of sleep. The hypocretin (orexin) neurons located in the dorsolateral hypothalamus, and their projections to the ventral forebrain and brainstem, serve as the major wakefulness promoting system.
Serum levels of melatonin, a sleep inducing hormone produced by the pineal gland, rise just before…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Tryptophan Metabolism and Gut-Brain Homeostasis
- Rationale for a Multi-Factorial Approach for the Reversal of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease and MCI: A Review
- Prioritized Research for the Prevention, Treatment, and Reversal of Chronic Disease: Recommendations From the Lifestyle Medicine Research Summit
- Relationship between sleep disorders and gut dysbiosis: what affects what?
- The role of CLOCK gene in psychiatric disorders: Evidence from human and animal research
- Genetic, Transcriptome, Proteomic, and Epidemiological Evidence for Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption and Polymicrobial Brain Invasion as Determinant Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.