Common symptoms of sleep disorders

The symptoms of sleep disorders and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are important to recognise in patients.

Some of the most recognisable symptoms of sleep disorders are daytime sleepiness and snoring, even though many patients ignore these signs or fail to recognise these as symptoms.

Other symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing may include:¹

• poor concentration
• morning headaches
• depressed mood
• night sweats
• weight gain
• fatigue
• forgetfulness
• sexual dysfunction
• nocturia

If your patient presents with any of the above symptoms, it's important to talk to them about the potential risk of sleep apnea and recommend a sleep test if you believe this is necessary.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea affects up to 5.7% of children², with common symptoms including:

• pathological snoring and habitual snoring (which affects 3.2-12% of children)³
• noisy breathing and increased work of breathing
• pauses in breathing with noisy resumption of breathing
• chronic mouth breathing
• behavioural problems, such as hyperactivity and aggressiveness
• restless sleep

There are a number of risk factors that could also predispose children to having sleep-disordered breathing, including:

• Adenotonsillar hypertrophy ⁴
• Craniofacial malformation⁵
• Congenital syndromes²
• Obesity⁶

If symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing are observed in a child, it's important to either refer the child to a paediatric sleep physician or recommend a sleep test to determine whether he or she has a breathing disorder.

Find out how to request a sleep test.