Childhood sleep difficulties
Psychological approaches can be helpfully applied to understanding and managing children’s sleep problems. This can help families to make sense of and begin to tackle their child’s sleep problems. This is important because persistent sleep difficulties in children often lead to difficulties in daytime functioning, including behaviour problems, poor concentration, tiredness during the day, the need for more naps, inability to wake up when necessary, and additional mental health issues. These issues may present within children, as well as other members of the family affected by the sleeping difficulties.
Behaviour based sleep problems
Common sleep difficulties found in children are related to behaviour. These difficulties can happen at bedtime or during the night and include frequent calling out and getting out of bed, difficulty getting to sleep, not wanting to sleep in their own bed, frequent nighttime waking, bedtime fear and sleep anxiety, and irregular sleeping times. Behavioural sleep problems are treated with behaviour strategies to reduce the behaviour that’s causing the problem.