Sleep App For Children

Parents of children with sleeping problems can use new app to try techniques at home.

11:48 03 April 2015

A sleep app, designed to help deal with children's sleeping problems, has been developed by the Evelina Children's Hospital in London, in response to the number of parents expressing concern about their children's sleeping problems.

 

It aims to alleviate some pressure from the NHS, giving advice for parents to try at home.

 

The app is called Kid's Sleep Doctor and is a free app.  It advises parents on issues such as night terrors and teenagers who have become nocturnal.

 

Professor Gringras of the hospital, said that because of the huge waiting lists of children with sleep problems, the doctors are just seeing, "the tip of the iceberg."

 

The app is designed to give advice to parents of children who are 0-16 years old.

 

The app requires information to be entered, such as time fallen asleep, time awake, any caffeine consumed, how much time they have spent that day looking at screens etc.  This information is recorded for 5 days, after which the personalised service then begins.

 

If the app detects that the child is sleeping out of the normal range, it gives advice on how to deal with the problem.

 

An example of the advice given, is to introduce scheduled awakening in children experiencing night terrors.  This usually takes place an hour after they have gone to sleep.

 

Of course there will be children with more serious sleeping problems for whom the app will not be appropriate, e.g. a child with narcolepsy.  In these instances the child will need to see a doctor.