How are pediatric sleep disorders categorized?

Updated: Oct 09, 2018
  • Author: Sufen Chiu, MD, PhD; Chief Editor: Caroly Pataki, MD  more...
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The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) divided sleep disorders into the following 4 broad categories [2] : Primary sleep disorders, sleep disorders due to a general medical condition, sleep disorders related to another mental disorder, and substance-induced sleep disorders. As noted earlier, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has eliminated these delineations to further the understanding that most sleep disorders are complex interactions of behavior and biology. [3] In some ways, DSM-5 oversimplifies the diagnoses of sleep disorders, but this enables the general practitioner to make the diagnoses more reliably.

Sleep disorders are better understood when subdivided into dyssomnias, which are characterized by abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep, versus parasomnias, which are characterized by abnormal behavioral or physiologic events that occur in association with sleep stages or sleep-wake transitions.

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