Cerebral palsy affects a group of nervous system functions causing significant issues in their life. These neurological disorders contribute in many problems that a child has to face like not being able to walk, eat or even sleep. Cerebral palsy and sleep disorders go hand in hand with each other and are a key issue that both the parent and the affected child face. Not only this, the child will have other problems like seizures and motor development that can cause discomfort while sleeping.
Cerebral palsy usually affects infants or children below 2 years of age. Every parent looks forward to the time that the infant will fall asleep because it is only then that they can rest. Though children with cerebral palsy are same as the other children, whether they will sleep or not depends on the condition they are in. Children with cerebral palsy will have varying degree of sickness in them and it is unique with every child. The condition and problems that your child has may or may not be there in the other child. Similarly, whether your child will sleep at night or not depends on the condition of your child.
However, most of the times infants do sleep for 6-7 hours without interruption and if at all the child wakes up it will be because of hunger or wetness or bad position. The child will have to be attended to at these situations and if there is someone to respond to their needs, there won’t be much problem. But as the child grows, there can be lot of sleeping disorders that will be noticed. Seizures being the most common neurological disorder that a child with cerebral palsy will face, the sleep cycle is usually disturbed. This needs adequate treatment since sleep plays an important role in any individual’s daily activities. Hence, a diagnosis of the child will be required depending on which the treatment will be suggested.
In a normal sleep, a child will toss and turn throughout the night. For children with cerebral palsy, this movement can be painful due to their low motor skills and muscular issues. Physical therapy will be suggested to develop the motor skills and suitable medication is suggested to control seizures during sleep. If these are taken care of, a child has better chances of sleeping in the night without any sleep problems.
Sleeping disorders should be given due importance and treated by giving medications that include light sedatives or melatonin. Sleeping disorders can give rise to many other problems like depression, irritability, behavioral issues and health problems which will further complicate the life of a child. As the child grows, he has to be continually examined and treatment should be altered according to the changes in the child. With such cerebral palsy training, the child will learn to adapt to the different problems that can occur. In this way, the child will learn to lead a fairly normal life and with appropriate treatment and devices, they can develop motor skills too. In this way, the child will sleep more peacefully!