Pediatric Sleep Disorders Program

The Pediatric Sleep Disorders Program deals with all aspects of sleep medicine, including sleep apnea and nocturnal gastro-esophageal reflux and bruxism, difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep and circadian rhythm dysfunction. As a neurology-based sleep disorders unit, there is a particular emphasis on the neurologic aspects of sleep disorders in both children and adults, with special emphasis on narcolepsy, idiopathic central nervous system hypersomnia, periodic limb movements of sleep, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking, confusional arousals, sleep terrors, REM sleep behavior disorder and all sleep-related epilepsies.

Sleep disorders occur with some frequency. In a study to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in a regional metropolitan area encompassing over 1,000 households, the prevalence of past or current insomnia was 42.5%, current or past nightmares 11.2%, excessive sleepiness 7.1%, sleeptalking 5.3%, sleepwalking 2.5% and bedwetting 2.1%. It is generally felt that over 4% of the male population, and over 2% of the female population, suffer from sleep-disordered breathing requiring some form of clinical intervention. Periodic limb movement disorder has been reported to occur in 1-15% of patients with insomnia. Symptoms of restless legs syndrome have been identified in 5-15% of normal subjects, 15-20% of uremic patients, and up to 30% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A majority of asthma patients, 61-74%, report nighttime awakenings due to sleep-related asthma.

Our sleep disorders team, consisting of specially trained physicians and sleep technologists, has full access to the various departments and subspecialties that encompass both adult and pediatric medicine at the hospital. Our sleep laboratory, where parents are able to stay overnight with their child, performs studies on a nightly basis, seven nights per week. It is part of the Division of Clinical Neurophysiology, which also encompasses the EEG and EMG laboratories.

Attending Physicians: Kenneth Sassower M.D.