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Many babies and young children have problems sleeping at first. But if children are still not sleeping through the night by the age of 2 years, they might have a sleep problem. All of this information is about children over the age of 2.

There are three main types of sleep problems:

• Too little sleep
• Nightmares, night terrors and sleepwalking
• Too much sleep.

The first two types of sleep problems are the most common in children. We don't know exactly what causes some children to have sleep problems. There are probably many reasons. Some of these are given below.

• Children learn certain sleep patterns. For example, if you give them lots of attention or treats when they wake at night, they may learn that waking at night is a good thing. These learned patterns may be behind some sleep problems.
• Young children have more REM (rapid eye movement) sleep than adults. During REM sleep, your brain is very active but your body is limp. Most dreaming happens during REM sleep. This type of sleep is often also linked to short periods of waking. Young children may need help to get back to sleep after waking from a dream.¹
• Some children have a sleep problem because their body clock is disrupted. Your body clock is sometimes called the circadian rhythm. It makes you feel sleepy at night when it's dark, and lively during the day. This gets out of sync sometimes when, for example, you have jet lag after traveling.

Certain things make your child more likely to get a sleep problem. These are known as risk factors. Risk factors for children having sleep problems include:^{2 3 4}

• Having had colic as a baby
• Having a difficult temperament, for example, being easily excited, moody or stubborn.

First-born children are also more likely to have sleep problems.

Sleep problems are often worse in children with physical or learning disabilities.⁵ These include children who have epileptic seizures, autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD for short).⁶ We don't fully know why. But we do know that:

• Children with sight problems who can't see light, which controls their body clock, may get a disrupted body clock
• Many medications can cause sleep problems, for example, drugs used to treat epilepsy can make you drowsy
• Some genetic disorders cause sleep disturbance, for example, children with Down syndrome may have disrupted sleep because of breathing problems.