Abstract
Behavioural sleep problems, that is, sleep problems that do not have a physiological aetiology, but rather a behavioural or psychological aetiology, are reported in between 20% - 40% of children and adolescents. These sleep disorders are categorised as Behavioural Insomnia of Childhood (BIC) in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. BIC can result in short sleep duration and poor quality sleep and can have wide ranging effects on mental and physical health, cognitive and social functioning and development in infants, pre-schoolers, school aged children and adolescents. Each age group have a particular set of behaviourally based sleep disorders. This paper presents a broad overview of BIC and covers essential information about these sleep disorders, their aetiologies, effects on development and non medical treatment modalities.
Highlights
There is an abundant literature on the consequences of short sleep duration and poor quality sleep on a wide range of negative outcomes in mental and physical health, cognitive and social functioning in young people (Fallone et al, 2001) Sequelae include motor skill deficits (Laureys, 2002); greater emotional liability, increased impulsivity, aggression and hyperactivity (Pearl et al, 2002; Sadeh et al, 2002; Blunden, 2010); increased potential for alcohol and drug abuse in adulthood (Wong et al, 2004); and suicide risk in adulthood (Wojnar, 2009)
The most abundant information regarding the effects of sleep disturbance on daytime function, among children, comes from studies of sleep disordered breathing (SDB)
Behavioural sleep disorders in children are described as Behavioural Insomnia of Childhood (BIC) by American Academy of Sleep Medicine in (AASM 2005), in their International Classification of Sleep Disorders—Second Edition (ICSD-2; 2005; see Table 1)
Summary
Received November 18th, 2011; revised December 21st, 2011; accepted January 19th, 2012. Behavioural sleep problems, that is, sleep problems that do not have a physiological aetiology, but rather a behavioural or psychological aetiology, are reported in between 20% - 40% of children and adolescents. These sleep disorders are categorised as Behavioural Insomnia of Childhood (BIC) in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. Each age group have a particular set of behaviourally based sleep disorders. This paper presents a broad overview of BIC and covers essential information about these sleep disorders, their aetiologies, effects on development and non medical treatment modalities
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