Sleep-wake transition disorders occur in the transition from wakefulness to sleep or vice versa. Because these disorders most often occur in otherwise healthy persons, they are considered variants of normal physiology rather than indicators…

The most common REM parasomnia is the nightmare. Nightmares are frightening awakenings from REM sleep associated with dream reports that are typically anxiety-laden. Stress of various kinds, and especially traumatic experiences, increases the frequency and…

The two intrinsic dyssomnias that most commonly affect children and adolescents are both disorders of excessive somnolence: obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and narcolepsy. In the former, children may be sleepy during the daytime because of…

• Does the child complain of being too sleepy or weary during the day?
• Is there any evidence of daytime sleepiness, such as excessive or inappropriate napping? Or, paradoxically, are there…

Disorders of arousal, first described by Broughton (1990), have certain features in common during an episode: mental confusion and disorientation, automatic behaviors, relative nonreactivity to external stimuli, difficulty in being fully awakened, and fragmentary…

Normally, our sleep-wake cycle approximates a 24-hour diurnal rhythm. We sleep during the dark part of the day and are awake during the light part. When studied in an artificial time-isolation environment,…

Narcolepsy is a REM sleep hypersomnia of unknown etiology that is attributed to dysfunction of brain-stem mechanisms associated with sleep-wake regulation (Broughton 1990). Epidemiological studies have reported the prevalence of narcolepsy at 0.04%-0.07%, making narcolepsy twice…

Parental concerns about sleep are common, even though youngsters may not complain themselves. Young children never seem tired and typically resist going to bed. Adolescents, in contrast, can sleep anywhere, anytime.…

In the revised International Classification of Sleep Disorders Diagnostic and Coding Manual (ICSD-DCM), the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA; 1990) broadly classifies three categories of disordered sleep: 1) dyssomnias, 2) parasomnias, and 3)…

Newborns spend 50% of their sleep time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (also known as active sleep or dreaming sleep) and 50% of their sleep time in non-REM (NREM) sleep (also…