These are just a few characteristics of Five Different Sleep Disorders that can impair your child’s school success and cause health or safety risks. Your child will NOT have ALL of these symptoms because s/he probably doesn’t have Five Sleep Disorders! But if s/he has some of these symptoms, you may want to complete the Sleep Disorders Inventory for Students (SDIS) to screen your child and find out if s/he may have a sleep disorder and if it appears to be mild, moderate, or severe.

Most Sleep Disorders can be corrected fairly easily and usually result in improved academic and behavioral functioning for your child post-treatment. Some sleep disorders can be very harmful to your child’s health and safety. Some may masquerade as other disorders such as ADHD, Depression, Oppositional-Defiant Disorder, Learning Disabilities, and Emotional or Behavioral Handicaps. Once they are corrected, these other disorder characteristics often lessen in severity or disappear.

The International Sleep Task Force Committee estimated that 20-to-25% of all children experience sleep problems in childhood. The National Institute of Health (NIH) estimated that as high as 15% of all children may have a significant sleep disorder that is negatively impacting their academics, behaviors, social-emotional development, health, and/or safety (National Institute of Health Research & Grant Website, 2001). Many of these sleep disorders do not disappear without medical or behavioral treatment. The Sleep Disorders Inventory for Students (SDIS) is designed to screen children/adolescents for five of the major and most frequently occurring sleep disorders that negatively impact school performance, behaviors, health, and safety. The sleep disorders that are screened by the SDIS are Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS), Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD) and Restless Legs Syndrome, Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) or Behavioral Insomnia of Childhood (BIC), Narcolepsy, and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS). Even though EDS is not really a sleep disorder, it can be an indication of the beginning phase of Narcolepsy or other serious medical disorders. The SDIS also screens for five parasomnias that tend to worry parents. These parasomnias are Teeth Grinding, Sleep-Walking, Sleep-Talking, Night Terrors, and Bed-Wetting (Nocturnal Enuresis). The SDIS does not screen for some sleep disorders that rarely occur. However, it screens for approximately 90-95% of all sleep disorders existing in children or adolescents.

After reading this article, if you suspicion that your child may have a sleep disorder, simply click on to the “SDIS Screening” selection button at this website and get an accurate measure of how your child compares to hundreds of other children/teens who have been screened with the SDIS. A Sleep Disorder Graph ranks your child on the 5 Sleep Disorder Scales with Standard Scores, Percentile Ranks, One-of-Three Sleep Classifications, and it produces a Narrative Report providing recommendations of how you can help your child with his/her sleep problems.