Dr. Rafael Pelayo of the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine published a brief article this week on the history and future of the science of sleep medicine and Stanford University's role in the field. 

Our understanding of sleep has changed over time. Sleep disorders were confused for curses and sleep was considered a passive and wasteful activity.

We now know that sleep is vitally important to our health and well being. Sleep centers across the country test and diagnose thousands of patients yearly. Interestingly, at Stanford's sleep center approximately 25% of the patients tested are children.

The Mayo clinic suggests that as many as 30% of children suffer from some sleep disorder.

Undiagnosed, these sleep disorders can lead to serious health issues affecting the individual into adulthood. As more physicians enter the field of sleep medicine and awareness grows about sleep disorders, we will find that a bulk of the patients are children.

"This speaks to the future of sleep medicine: recognizing these conditions [sleep disorders] in childhood so that interventions can change development, affecting everything from growth to behavior. It is a significant need and one that deserves wider attention on a national and international basis...The study of normal sleep and sleep disorders in children is an especially integral part of the development of the future of modern sleep medicine." Dr. Richard Pelayo

Learn more about sleep disorders affecting children and the process for testing and diagnosing children on our website www.sleepdr.com.

Photo Credit: Sleeping Child, oil painting by Mary Richardson, courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeparking/