“To sleep… perchance to dream!” A consideration of the role of sleep in the health trajectories of children and young people

Abstract:

It is often a surprise to healthcare professionals that the area of sleep is still fairly poorly understood and usually not well taught in our undergraduate curricula, if it is taught at all. There are varying definitions of sleep, but we are all aware of what the lack of good quality sleep can cause – even death at its most extreme! Paediatric sleep is an often overlooked, yet vital component in the development of children and young people to meet their potential both physically and psychologically. Their health trajectories can be significantly impacted by poor or disrupted sleep and there are some conditions that pre-dispose them to challenges in this area. Problematic sleep may develop over time in response to physical changes as the child grows or their underlying disease progresses or can be due to psychological reasons such as anxiety, insecurity issues or trauma all of which can significantly affect the child and change their patterns of sleep.

In this presentation, we examine the function and utility of sleep in growth and development as well as the currently understood sleep architecture and the developmental changes in sleep with age. We consider the scientific evidence for both the physical and psychological aspects of the practice of sleep in children and consider when it is appropriate to manage these conditions in a general paediatric setting and when specialist help is warranted.

We consider the role that sleep hygiene can play in establishing and maintaining good patterns of sleep and how we can support parents at home to achieve this. We briefly cover both subjective and objective measures utilised in the assessment of the child for sleep disorders, and we consider some of the key investigations that can be done both at home and in a specialist sleep unit, and some of the possible solutions to these challenges with a brief overview of the key therapeutic interventions, both medical and surgical.

Biography:

Mrs. Heather Hanna studied both adult and paediatric nursing in a joint course at the Charles West School of Nursing at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London qualifying as a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Sick Children’s Nurse in 1989. She also qualified as an RN in the State of Washington, practicing there for 3 years in Infant Intensive Care Unit and then as a Research Nurse at Children’s Hospital, Seattle. Her career was mostly spent in Neonatal Intensive Care before she moved into Research at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington where she also obtained her MSc in Allergy (dist.) from Imperial College London. Some ten years ago, she moved into Medical Education and obtained her MEd in University Lecturing and Teaching from Imperial College. Her roles are now split between Undergraduate Medical Education working in the Medical Ethics and Law Team and Postgraduate Medical Education as Clinical Teaching Fellow on the online Applied Paediatrics MSc course, both at Imperial College London.