Sleep: Quantity and Quality

Sleep is essential to promote optimal health for everyone!  For children specifically, it is associated with better health outcomes including: improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health while lack of recommended amounts of sleep is associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems.  That being said, it’s not only the quantity of sleep that is essential, but also the QUALITY of sleep!  If you notice that your baby or child is mouth breathing, know that is NEVER normal. Snoring, teeth grinding, open mouth breathing, restless sleep all are signs of sleep disordered breathing and demonstrate a lack of quality sleep which contributes to all of the above-mentioned problems.  Work on oral motor skills with both traditional myofunctional therapy for those older kiddos (over age 4) or work on tongue function in general with the guidance of a knowledgeable occupational or speech therapist can be essential in getting the tongue elevated and suctioned to the roof of the mouth, lips closed and help our babes and kids breathe through their nose.  Our speech and occupational therapists have advanced training in oral motor and myofunctional therapy and are here to help your babies and children THRIVE!

Paruthi, S., Brooks, L. J., D’Ambrosio, C., Hall, W. A., Kotagal, S., Lloyd, R. M., Malow, B. A., Maski, K., Nichols, C., Quan, S. F., Rosen, C. L., Troester, M. M., & Wise, M. S. (2016). Recommended amount of sleep for pediatric populations: A consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(06), 785–786. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.5866