Episode 115: Q&A - Our Son Doesn’t Sleep Well, It’s Affecting His Behavior At School And At Home

This question comes from Travis and Mandy: “Our son is 9 years old and has never slept well, even since he was a baby. He has always been very active, tends to overreact to even small things and is irritable most days. Since he has been in school, we’ve had concerns raised by his teachers every year about his difficulty with staying still, focusing, being impulsive and getting his work done. We definitely see these things at home when we try to get him to do homework or focus on things he doesn’t want to do. We're trying to get him to bed on time but he really struggles to fall asleep and then comes out of his room a lot.  He wants to get in bed with us, which we let him do most of the time so we can get some sleep. We’ve noticed that he moves around a ton during the night and we’re constantly getting kicked.  He wakes up grouchy most mornings and it's really hard to get him going. Our pediatrician and some family members have suggested that he probably has ADHD and maybe some other kinds of behavioral issues and should be evaluated, but I can't help but think that his bad sleep might have something to do with these problems. We’d love any insights you have on this. Thanks. Travis and Mandy.” In this episode, I will address several things that I recommend looking at in order to get an idea of the main issues that are keeping your child from a good night's sleep. These are things you want to consider before going in for some kind of mental health or behavior diagnosis. Things like physiological and psychological barriers that interrupt sleep, snoring, or night mares for example. I’ll talk about sleep routines, sleep quantity and quality, and of course nutrition.   You can submit a question by emailing us at [email protected] with the subject line "Podcast Question."   Connect with Dr. Nicole Beurkens on... Instagram Facebook Drbeurkens.com