English for PTA

Sleeping Disorders

Abbildung © Thomas Gordon / www.istockphoto.com © Thomas Gordon / www.istockphoto.com

In this article we’d like to address something that probably does not come into mind when thinking of insomnia: children and adolescents. Quite a large number is affected by sleeplessness.

While there are a lot of similarities between the sleeping disorders that affect children and adolescents and those that affect adults, there are quite a few differences as well. Recent studies have shown that today’s children are more likely to suffer from sleeplessness and various other sleeping disorders to a much greater extent than their parents and grandparents did.

Common sense tells us, of course, that our children are exposed every day to stimuli that simply didn’t exist when we were kids. Quite a large number of children watch TV and surf the internet without much parental guidance or control, the result of which may be sleeplessness. Children today are no less imaginative than their parents were, the danger is that they may simply be exposed to more stimuli than previous generations.

Night terrors, for example, occur most frequently in children between the ages of four and eight years of age and are characterised by sudden awakening and feelings of fear. The main reason is that watching an exciting film, or a horror movie, however mild it might be considered to be, can activate wild imaginations and lead to nightmares. Teething in babies and toddlers, and bruxism in older children are another reason for sleeplessness.

As lack of sleep can have a serious effect on school performance, adolescents need special care and attention when it comes to a bad night’s sleep. It is not unusual, on entering the first phases of puberty, for young adolescents to suffer from disturbed sleeping patterns because of the changes in hormone levels and the biological clock in general. School children of all ages may suffer from anxiety, before tests for instance, which leads to bad sleeping patterns. It might be difficult to believe but, unfortunately, quite a lot of children suffer from sleeping disorders due to a lack of parental loving care and attention.

Pharmacy customer: Hello.

PTA: Hello. What can I do for you?

It’s my son. I can’t get him to get out of bed in the morning nor up to bed in the evening. It’s a battle of wills every time.

Oh, I know the story! And he probably doesn’t make an appearance at the weekend until early afternoon! (Laughs)

Do you know my son? But seriously, he is turning into a sleeping demon for all of us. He’s irritable, moody and his grades are starting to slip at school.

How old is your son?

He’s thirteen, he’ll be fourteen next month.

So, I assume he’s right in the middle of puberty. You know: growing rapidly, voice cracking and one minute he doesn’t want to know you and the next he just needs his teddy!

Tell me about it!

Does you son have to get up very early in the morning to go to school? You know to catch the school bus?

Oh Yes! That’s one of the main battles every morning! He has to get the bus a 6:45 am, even if he doesn’t need to be in school until 9 am or so. The bus service in our village is dreadful! And the return journey isn’t much better. If he misses his transfer at the central bus station, he has to wait for over an hour before the next connection that will bring him home.

Well, that’s interesting!

Interesting! Bus timetables?

(Laughs) No, not the timetables! The fact that your son has to get up so early. You see sleep researchers have discovered, in various tests carried out over the last 15 to 20 years, that adolescents have very special sleep requirements. There are changes in the biological clock that have a knock-on effect on hormone levels and regulation of hormones in the body in general.

How can this effect his sleep?

Well, it has to do with the balance between the natural hormones, melatonin and cortisol. Melatonin is secreted to trigger sleep, and towards dawn cortisol levels increase to help us wake. Of course it’s a much more complicated process, but simply put that’s what happens.

I see. So, waking up early is probably not good for teenagers because of their mixed-up secretion of hormones.

Basically, yes, you are right. The changes in their biological clock cause them to have a so-called sleep phase delay, which of course causes them to sleep later in the evening and wake later in the morning.

Is there anything I can do to help him?

Try and bring in some routine to his sleeping pattern. I mean going to bed at roughly the same time every evening and waking him at the same time in the morning. And please make sure that there are no electrical devices, such as TV and computer or even an alarm clock with glowing numbers on it in his bedroom. All these devices effect the climate in the room and your son may be tempted to get up and surf the internet when he can’t sleep. And that would be counterproductive!

I didn’t know that. Thank your for being so patient and for your advice. I will definitely try and use it. Bye!

Don’t mention it. Goodbye.

Vocabulary

to address (sth.)   sich mit (etwas) befassen
insomnia   Schlafstörungen
adolescents   Heranwachsende, Jugendliche
similarities   Ähnlichkeiten
more likely   wahrscheinlicher
(to a) greater extent   mehr
common sense   Vernunft
exposed   ausgesetzt
stimuli   Reize
parental   elterlich
imaginative   fantasievoll
night terrors   Nachtangst
considered (wird)   betrachtet
nightmares   Albträume
teething   Zahnen
toddlers   Kleinkinder
bruxism   Bruxismus, Zähneknirschen
disturbed   gestört
patterns   Muster
anxiety   Angst
unfortunately   leider
battle of wills   Willenskampf
make an appearance (ugs.)   auftauchen
irritable   gereizt
moody   launisch
voice cracking   Stimmbruch
tell me about it! (ugs.)   Sie sagen es!
dreadful   schrecklich
sleep researchers   Schlafforscher
knock-on effect   Anstoßwirkung
secreted   wird abgesondert, sezerniert
(to) trigger   auslösen
dawn   Morgendämmerung
delay   Verzögerung
roughly   ungefähr
devices   Geräte
glowing   leuchtend