If you have a new infant, you’re probably painfully aware that their sleeping habits are different from an adult’s. They need to sleep significantly more than you (often as much as 16 hours a day), but they don’t sleep the same hours you do and they have to wake up many times in the middle of the night. This behavior is normal, but some babies can develop children sleep disorders that can be very serious. Humans of all ages need sleep to grow and regenerate, and babies especially need their sleep to do this.

Infant Sleep Problems:

If your baby is waking up excessively often, you might want to consider that another problem is at work. Here are some issues to consider that you might even want to talk to the baby’s doctor about:

• Colic
• Allergies to food or formula
• Airborne allergens
• Separation anxiety
• Pain caused by teething, gas, ear aches, or another health issue
• Discomfort caused by pajamas or blankets, or heat, cold, thirst, etc.
• Pinworms
• Urinary track infection
• Gasto-esophageal reflux
• Habit

If none of these options apply and your infant is still having excessive difficulty sleeping, it may be caused by a sleeping disorder that is more serious. Sleep apnea, for example, is when breathing is repeatedly interrupted during sleep. Sleep labs have found babies that stop breathing for about 20 seconds when suffering from sleep apnea. This can cause a baby to gasp, gag, or even turn blue.

There are three different types sleep disorder:

• Central Sleep Apnea: this happens when the brain doesn’t signal the muscles to tell them to breath. This is the most common apnea in babies.
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea: this happens when blockage occurs in the breathing pathways.
• Mixed Sleep Apnea: this is a mixture between the two other types.

No one is completely sure what causes children sleep disorder, but it’s most likely that the central nervous system causes the problem because it is immature. There are many other possibilities, such as problems with the heart or blood vessels, birth defects, infections, bleeding in the brain, respiratory disease, gastrointestinal problems, chemical imbalances, and exposure to drugs or poisons.

Periodic breathing, on the other hand, is normal for infants under 6 months of age. A child might breathe quickly for a short period, then stop breathing for about 15 seconds, then resume breathing normally. Doctors can tell whether a baby has sleep apnea or periodic breathing by measuring the oxygen in the baby’s blood, monitoring the breathing and heart rate, and possibly taking an X-ray. A doctor can even take a polysomnogram, which monitors different aspects of the baby’s sleep.

It’s very important that a parent recognizes the signs of children sleep disorder in infants and takes care of serious disorders right away. Infant sleep apnea, for example, can be fatal if an infant’s oxygen levels or its heart rate gets too low. Even if an infant survives a severe episode of sleep apnea, one apparent life-threatening event (also referred to as ALTE) has been found to cause long-term complications and increases the risk of unexpected death. Luckily, sleep apnea is treatable, so if you’re concerned about how your baby is breathing during the night, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor.