This page is about sleep in primary school children. It's part of a whole section on sleeping sound [1].
Children with restless legs have an uncomfortable feeling in their legs when trying to fall asleep. These feelings usually happen at the start of the night, whereas 'growing pains' occur during the night. Children with restless legs may:
The cause of restless legs is not known but it can run in families. It can also occur in children who have low iron levels (anaemia), and is more common in children who have some illnesses like diabetes and kidney disease.
No. There is not a single test for Restless Legs Syndrome but sometimes tests are needed to rule out other reasons for sleeping problems.
Change the bedtime routine so that your child does not get into bed until they are ready to fall asleep. This means all bedtime routines (for example, stories) should happen with your child out of the bed.
[2]Starship Foundation and the Paediatric Society of New Zealand thank the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, for making this content available to parents and families.
© Copyright – Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2014. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part of this content may be reproduced by a process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.
This page last reviewed 16 March 2023.
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Links
[1] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/tags/sleeping-sound
[2] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/sites/kidshealth/files/pdfs/Restless_Legs_SleepingSound.pdf
[3] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/node/2772?language=rar
[4] https://sleepwithkip.com/strategies/
[5] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/contact?from=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kidshealth.org.nz%2Fprint%2F1801%3Flanguage%3Drar