Health Articles — sleep

It can often be the case where stomach pains are keeping your child awake at night or even waking them up screaming. When there are no other signs and symptoms, it can be a bit perplexing. Then an x-ray or pathology may be conducted and it comes back normal. What could it be? No one knows? It could be something that is called: “FUNCTIONAL ABDOMINAL PAIN” Functional refers to the fact that nothing has showed up in testing, there are no blockages, no sign of inflammation, or any infection. Basically, it is pain in the abdominal area that has been...

Getting the right amount of sleep can be a problem for children of any age. It can even be a problem for adults. Young children may have difficulty settling and teenagers may experience insomnia. When it comes to baby's sleep, it can take about six weeks for sleep rhythms to develop. It takes even longer, up to six months, to develop regular sleep wake cycle. Why does it take so long? Melatonin is the hormone required to regulate sleep and it takes about three months for this to get into full production in the body. Breastfed babies can get melatonin...

There are more than 80 distinct sleep disorders listed on the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. The most common form of sleep disorder is Obstructive sleep apnoea and occurs in about 2-4% of adults. A large proportion of individuals which includes approximately 93% of women and 82% of men may have this and remain undiagnosed. Other sleep disorders that are common include sleep disordered breathing, sleep related movement disorders, insomnia (10-13% of the population), restless legs syndrome (4-29% of the population). The statistics of sleep disorders are increasing and a contributing factor to the rise in prevalence of sleep disorders...