Overview
Childhood sleep apnea is a common condition that causes a pause in your child’s breathing pattern while they sleep. Your child’s breathing changes due to an obstruction or blockage in their airway or because their brain isn’t communicating with their breathing muscles.
When your child’s brain senses changes to their body’s air intake, it’ll signal their lungs to breathe. This may cause your child to wake up frequently in the middle of the night. It’s similar to hearing your phone ring once while you’re sleeping. When you hear it, you wake up but fall back asleep instead of answering it.
While brief, these interruptions affect your child’s sleeping pattern. As a result, your child may be more tired during the daytime.
You may hear your child’s healthcare provider refer to childhood sleep apnea as pediatric sleep apnea.
What are the types of childhood sleep apnea?
There are three types of childhood sleep apnea:
- Obstructive sleep apnea: This is the most common form of childhood sleep apnea. It occurs when your child has a blockage in their airways.
- Central sleep apnea: This is a rare type of sleep apnea. It usually affects newborns. It happens when a baby’s brain has trouble communicating with the muscles that regulate their breathing.
- Mixed/complex sleep apnea (treatment-emergent central sleep apnea): This is a form of central sleep apnea. It occurs when a child who has obstructive sleep apnea receives treatment with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine and develops central sleep apnea.
How common is childhood sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is very common. Around the world, an estimated 1 billion people have sleep apnea. Among children, obstructive sleep apnea occurs in up to 1% to 5% of all ages including babies, infants, toddlers, children, adolescents and teenagers. Childhood obstructive sleep apnea is most common between the ages of 2 and 6 years old.
Is childhood sleep apnea dangerous?
While it’s most common for a child to experience mild symptoms of sleep apnea, untreated childhood sleep apnea could be dangerous and lead to the following complications:
- Growth and development challenges.
- Loss of bladder control (enuresis).
- Cardiopulmonary disease (heart and lung conditions).
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Changes to your child’s sleep pattern may affect your child’s behavior, emotional capacity and academic performance.
Symptoms
When to see a doctor
Complications
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Heart failure.
- Some types of heart valve disease.
Prevention
- Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
- Don't smoke or use tobacco.
- Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
- Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduce and manage stress.
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