Pediatric Sleep Problems: A Clinician's Guide to Behavioral Interventions

Sleep problems are common in children. Between 25-40% of youth experience sleep difficulties such as sleep anxiety, insomnia, frequent waking, delayed circadian rhythm, night terrors, and nocturnal enuresis or encopresis at some point during childhood or adolescence. Yet, most healthcare providers receive little if any training in pediatric sleep problems―and most training that does exist tends to emphasize medical rather than behavioral interventions.

This book presents highly effective behavioral interventions for common pediatric sleep problems. Step-by-step instructions show readers how to clinically assess and treat children from toddlers to teenagers, and case examples apply the instructions to real-life scenarios. The authors also provide over 30 handouts and worksheets for parents and children, including sleep logs and directions for a series of creative, at-home interventions, all of which can also be downloaded from a supplemental website.

Lisa J. Meltzer, PhD, CBSM, is an associate professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health. She received her doctorate in clinical and health psychology from the University of Florida, and she completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She was selected as a Pickwick Postdoctoral Fellow in Sleep Research by the National Sleep Foundation, studying sleep patterns in parents of children with chronic illnesses.

Dr. Meltzer is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine by the American Board of Sleep Medicine, and she directs both the Pediatric Behavioral Sleep Clinic and the Actigraphy Program at National Jewish Health. She also has a funded program of research examining sleep in children with chronic illnesses and their parents, the impact of deficient sleep on health outcomes in adolescents with asthma, as well as the development and validation of objective and subjective measures of pediatric sleep.

Valerie McLaughlin Crabtree, PhD, CBSM, is an assistant faculty member in the Department of Psychology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She received her doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi and completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Dr. Crabtree is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine by the American Board of Sleep Medicine and directs the psychology clinic and psychology training programs at St. Jude. Her clinical work and research are focused on sleep in children and adolescents with cancer.