Good Night, Sleep Right

A good night’s sleep is important to growing children. However, a recent study showed an increasing trend of young children suffering from sleeping problems. MH finds out more.

- Cindy Lim

Jasmine Tan, four, snores in her sleep every night. She often talks or shouts in her sleep, and sometimes would sit or try to climb off her bed. “It is worrying – she will snore loudly with her mouth open and sometimes choke on her saliva and start coughing. With the constant fidgeting in bed and talking at night, I am worried that she is not getting enough quality sleep,” shares Emily Lim, 33, a homemaker and mother to Jasmine.

Like Jasmine, there are many other young children suffering from sleep problems and this number is increasing.

“In general, childhood sleep problems are quite common. Many times these are not brought up in medical consultations and sometimes not adequately addressed. We know that in Singapore, almost 44 per cent of parents of children under three years of age reported sleep problems in their infants,” explains Dr Mahesh Babu Ramamurthy, head and senior consultant, Division of Paediatric Pulmonary and Sleep, National University Hospital.

Childhood Sleep Disorders

There are several types of sleeping problems that children may face.

Snoring 

Snoring, or noisy breathing, occurs when there is obstruction of the flow of air through the mouth and nose. Air flow can be obstructed by a combination of factors such as obstructed nasal airways, poor muscle tone in the throat and tongue, bulky throat tissue, large tonsils and adenoids or long soft palate and/ or uvula. Snoring can be harmless but it may also result in poor quality of sleep.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea