Common Signs of a Sleep Disorder

Look over this list of common signs of a sleep disorders, and talk to your doctor if you have any of them:

• It takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep at night.
• You awaken frequently in the night and then have trouble falling back to sleep again.
• You awaken too early in the morning.
• You frequently don’t feel well rested despite spending 7–8 hours or more asleep at night.
• You feel sleepy during the day and fall asleep within 5 minutes if you have an opportunity to nap, or you fall asleep at inappropriate times during the day.
• Your bed partner claims you snore loudly, snort, gasp, or make choking sounds while you sleep, or your partner notices your breathing stops for short periods.
• You have creeping, tingling, or crawling feelings in your legs that are relieved by moving or massaging them, especially in the evening and when you try to fall asleep.
• You have vivid, dreamlike experiences while falling asleep or dozing.
• You have episodes of sudden muscle weakness when you are angry, fearful, or when you laugh.
• You feel as though you cannot move when you first wake up.
• Your bed partner notes that your legs or arms jerk often during sleep.
• You regularly need to use stimulants to stay awake during the day.

Also keep in mind that, although children can show some of these same signs of a sleep disorder, they often do not show signs of excessive daytime sleepiness. Instead, they may seem overactive and have difficulty focusing and concentrating. They also may not do their best in school.

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Signs and Symptoms of Hydrocephalus

The signs and symptoms of hydrocephalus in infants and children vary depending on their age, the degree of hydrocephalus at presentation, the primary etiology, and the time over which the hydrocephalus develops. Ventriculomegaly can progress without obvious signs of increased intracranial pressure because of the plasticity of the infant brain and the ability of the cranium to expand.

In full-term infants, signs often include macrocephaly and progressively increasing occipital frontal head circumference, crossing percentile curves. Normal head circumference for a full-term infant is 33–36 cm at birth. A normal head circumference increases by approximately 2 cm/month during the first 3 months, by 1.5 cm/month during the 4th and 5th months, and by about 0.5 cm/month from months 6–12.

Signs and symptoms of hydrocephalus in children:

Premature infants

• Apnea
• Bradycardia
• Hypotonia
• Acidosis
• Seizures
• Rapid head growth
• Tense fontanel
• Splayed cranial sutures
• Vomiting
• Sunsetting eyes

Full-term infants

• Macrocephaly
• Rapid head growth
• Decreased feeding
• Increased drowsiness
• Tense fontanel
• Vomiting
• Distended scalp veins
• Splayed cranial sutures
• Poor head control
• Parinaud’s sign
• Sunsetting eyes
• Frontal bossing

Toddlers and older

• Headache
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Irritability
• Lethargy
• Delayed development
• Decreased school performance
• Behavioral disturbance
• Papilledema
• Parinaud’s sign
• Sunsetting eyes
• Bradycardia
• Hypertension
• Irregular breathing patterns

 

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