Learning how to Sleep: Principles and Guidelines for Diagnostics and Treatment for Insomnia and Nightmares in Childhood and Adolescence

Impaired sleep, short sleep duration and sleep disorders appears also in early life. The most frequent sleep disorders are insomnia and nightmares. Risk of chronification is high and daytime impairments are extensively from emotion regulation problems, impaired performance, and aggression up to suicidality. Therefore, early diagnostic and treatment is necessary. As symptoms vary according to age, treatment should be strictly age-dependent. Various guideline-oriented and age-dependent treatments will be presented. Beyond, parents often have daytime impairments due to the child's sleep problem and therefore report an improvement of their own sleep after treatment. However, more studies are necessary and randomized controlled and age-oriented studies are necessary with inclusion of comorbid disorders or address sleep disorders in the context of mental disorders. In addition, efficacy of sleep treatment in mental disorders should be studied.