Paediatric Sleep Clinic

The Paediatric Sleep Clinic is led by Dr Sarah Blunden (BAPsych Hons, MSocSc, PhD) who is a clinical psychologist and member of the Australian Psychological Society, Australasian Sleep Association, International Pediatric Sleep Association, Neuroscience Network and the Australian Council of Children and the Media. Dr Blunden has been researching and treating children's sleep disorders for several years at the University of South Australia and through her Paediatric Sleep Clinic in South Australia and Northern Territory, including “E-therapy” around Australia and with an overseas stint at the University of Michigan Medical Center Pediatric Sleep Clinic.

Research undertaken by Dr Blunden indicates that there is a large percentage of children in Australia who are in need of assistance with their sleep problems. Most sleep problems only last for a while and may be related to something in the child's life (going to school, divorce in the family, getting teeth etc.) But others stay around for months and sometime years. Chronic sleep problems can have long term effects on children's physical and psychological health.

Sleep problems in children (and adults !) can be largely divided into medical sleep problems (such as sleep apnea, sleep related epilepsy) or behavioural/psychological (such as difficulties getting to sleep or staying asleep, reluctance to go to bed or sleep related anxiety). These latter problems are the type of problem treated at the Paediatric Sleep Clinic.

You may believe that your child has a sleep problem. Here are some basic questions that some parents and children have about how we can treat a sleep problem at the clinic by a psychologist.

WHAT DOES A SLEEP PSYCHOLOGIST DO?
A sleep psychologist specialises in diagnosing and treating children's sleep problems that are behaviourally/psychologically based.

WHAT IS A BEHAVIOURAL SLEEP PROBLEM? A sleep problem may be the result of a pattern of behaviours that may be getting in the way of good sleep habits. A sleep psychologist can find ways to change these sleep related behaviours (such as sleep routines, how the parents and child interact, how the child behaves when they are sacred or lonely at night) and usually when the sleep habits are changed the child's sleep patterns will improve. A sleep psychologist can also investigate whether anything else in the child's life is worrying them and interfering with their sleep such as bullying at school, moving house or a divorce in the family. Sleep can be one of the first things to be effected when a child has a change in their lives or they are worried about something. If sleep problems are found to medically based, children will be referred to medical sleep specialists.