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Treating Sleep Disorders in Newborns, Children, & Teens

At one time or another, most parents have coped with a child who will not sleep. Sleep disturbances are common in childhood, with almost 20-40 percent of children having experienced them at some point while growing up. Sleep disturbances can be caused by:

  • true sleep disorders,
  • neurological problems,
  • heart and lung problems,
  • gastrointestinal disturbances,
  • behavioral and developmental disorders, as well as
  • psychiatric disorders.

A sleep medicine specialist can help determine if your child's sleep disturbance is due to a true sleep disorder and treat the specific sleep disorder. Early diagnosis and treatment will promote a child's long-term health and well-being.

Our sleep medicine specialists can provide diagnosis, management, and treatment of sleep disorders in newborns, children, and teens.

Find a Specialist

A Relationship Created for the Best Pediatric Care

For pediatric specialty care, Primary Children's Hospital is affiliated with University of Utah Health. U of U Health physicians see patients at Primary Children's Hospital on campus, and at locations throughout the Salt Lake City valley.

It's a shared mission of providing health care, education, and research. It comes to life through collaboration on clinical care, research, and educational programs.

Primary Children's Hospital operates as the main pediatric facility for the U of U Health system, providing care in more than 60 medical and surgical specialties such as surgery, oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, and others. Most of the providers at Primary Children's Hospital are faculty members at U of U Health.

This partnership delivers care to advance pediatric medicine while educating future generations of health care professionals.

Pediatric Sleep Study

The pediatric sleep study helps provide diagnosis and treatment of breathing difficulties during sleep in infants, children and adolescents, difficulties falling or staying asleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, and unusual sleep-related behaviors.

Diagnosis may include:

  • History and physical examination
  • Sleep questionnaire
  • Sleep diary
  • Overnight oximetry
  • Polysomnography (sleep study)
  • Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT)

Sleep problems usually need to be approached by sleep medicine specialists, neurologists, psychiatrists, behavioral specialists, otolaryngologists, and pediatric lung specialists. Your child may need to be evaluated by multiple specialists in order to resolve their sleep problems.