”Sleeps like a baby”. The expression conjures up images of the bliss, peacefulness and innocence infants bring into this world. As parents we learn just how far from the truth this can be for many children.
Many babies and children don’t sleep that well at all. They may have trouble settling down, can’t seem to relax and only fall asleep with a lot of help. As they grow older they may show a variety of signs of a nervous system that has difficulty calming down. Sometimes this can take the form of a specific disorder – ADHD, the autistic-spectrum, OCD, oppositional disorder, sleep problems etc., but for many children their problem doesn’t even have a name.
Children may not be able to fall asleep by themselves, even as they grow older; they may fight with siblings, not be able to eat sitting down, have frequent bad dreams and fears, be socially or physically awkward and so on.
Many parents assume their kids have a psychological problem and fear they are doing something wrong. But in a great number of cases, the problem lies in the tuning of the nervous system. For this reason, neurofeedback is the most effective treatment, often getting results in just a few sessions.
Recent advances in neurofeedback have made it more effective with difficult disorders such as autism. While this is still a long process, we are seeing positive results in many cases.
