According to the National Sleep Foundation, a new study shows that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with inattention and poor study skills, which leads to poor academic performance in children with the disorder. Children with moderate to severe OSA have worse grades than students who do not have sleep-disordered breathing. None of the students with OSA had an “A” average, and 30 percent of them had a “C” average or lower.
The study included 163 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17 years of age. Results indicate that moderate to severe OSA is linked to both lower academic grades and behavioral problems observed by both parents and teachers. Students who had OSA averaged a half-letter grade lower than those without the condition.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine states that other problems associated with untreated OSA in children include aggressive behavior, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and delays in development. If left untreated, OSA can negatively affect a child for the rest of his or her life.
The good news is that sleep apnea in kids is easily diagnosed by a sleep test and is easily treated, often by tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy, or is that is not successful, we do CPAP (continuous Positive Airway Pressure). Believe it or not, children often take to it easier than adults. Be sure that you seek out a sleep medicine specialist that has significant experience testing and treating children. There is an extra monitor that we put on children (CO2 monitor) that is not part of the standard polysomnography (sleep test) but which is essential in detecting if the child is hypoventilating.
