ABSTRACT
In this chapter the stages of sleep will be described before considering their classification and clinical features. The assessment and management of various sleep problems will be discussed.
Where children have sleep problems, particularly settling and night-waking problems, and parents have tried over a period of months or years to solve the problem with little success, further family difficulties occur that may compound the sleep problems. These problems include exhaustion, parental depression, marital discord, deterioration in parent-child relationships, and reduction in number and quality of socially supportive interactions (Douglas, 1989; Horne, 1992; Skuse, 1994; Stores, 1996).
