Why do children have parasomnias?
Nobody really understands why children have parasomnias. There are a couple of things we do know. If there is a family history of parasomnias, it makes your child more likely to have them. The other thing that perpetuates these parasomnias is if you are sleep deprived. Somehow, it affects your rhythm; your ultradian rhythm, and your sleep cycle (how your brain cycles while you sleep) somehow is affected. So, if you have sleep deprivation, this will perpetuate these parasomnias. Now, you’re kind of in a catch-22 situation because if your child has parasomnias, and has night terrors or sleepwalking and you try to wake them up, then what you’re doing is you’re fragmenting sleep, so their quality of sleep is impaired, so they become sleep deprived. So, you get into this vicious cycle where, inadvertently, you’re actually perpetuating the problem. Now, when I say problem, I mean it’s not really a problem unless it’s a safety issue. Having a night terror is not bad for the child; it’s not th
