Paediatric Non-Respiratory Sleep Service

Oxford University Hospitals provides a specialist service for children with a wide range of sleep problems.

These include the following conditions.

Parasomnias, such as sleepwalking and night terrors
Sleep difficulties in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Circadian rhythm (body clock) disorders
Narcolepsy
Kline-Levin syndrome
Idiopathic hypersomnia
Movement disorders in sleep, including restless legs syndrome
Chronic insomnia
Disturbed sleep in children with epilepsy or suspected epilepsy, for example when nocturnal frontal lobe seizures are a possibility

Our team

Dr Dimitri Gavriloff

Dr Gavriloff is a clinical psychologist and sleep medicine specialist. His primary area of interest is in behavioural sleep medicine and his time is split between jointly running the paediatric non-respiratory sleep disorders service and his work at the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, University of Oxford.

Dr Kalaiyarasi Karthikeyan

Dr Karthikeyan is a specialty doctor in community paediatrics and sleep medicine. Her particular area of interest is sleep problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr Nadine McCrea

Dr McCrea is a consultant paediatric neurologist with a special interest in sleep disorders. Dr McCrea runs the paediatric narcolepsy service, and also sees children with complex neurological disorders and epilepsy.

Dr Mkael Symmonds

Dr Symmonds is a consultant clinical neurophysiologist with a special interest in sleep disorders. He runs the sleep service for adult patients, as well as reporting sleep studies for patients of all ages.

Dr Zenobia Zaiwalla

Dr Zaiwalla is an honorary consultant and sleep disorders specialist. She has retired from full time NHS practice, having led both the paediatric and adult non-respiratory sleep services for many years.

We also have additional consultant neurophysiologists and neurophysiology technicians working behind the scenes, facilitating and reporting our sleep studies, and a dedicated medical secretary.

Information for families

Sleep diary and questionnaire

We usually ask you to complete a sleep diary for two weeks, and a sleep questionnaire, which you can email to us before or after the appointment.

Children's Sleep Diary (pdf, 210 KB)

Or, you can download the 'SNappD' sleep app and use this to complete a sleep diary. Please email us the report from the app after two weeks.

Sleep questionnaire for children aged under 11 years (pending)

Sleep questionnaire for adults and children aged 11+ years (pdf, 275 KB)

Ways to encourage good sleep habits

Physical exertion in the afternoon
Consistent daily bedtime
Last drink one to one and a half hour(s) before bed (reduced chance of bedwetting / getting up to toilet)
Avoid stimulating food and drink (e.g. sugar, caffeine)
Wind-down time in the hour before attempting to settle to sleep (calming activities e.g. reading, board games, calming music)
No screens (television, phones, tablets) for at least one hour before bed
No television in bedroom
Low light during settling; red coloured light if night light is needed (does not interfere with natural melatonin production)
Having a transitional object (e.g. a soft toy) to develop sleep confidence and a healthy sleep association
Working towards child falling asleep by themselves in their own bed
Limit setting on 'fussing' after 'lights out': 'I am going to give you one last kiss then it's time to sleep'
Reducing attention given after 'lights out' to prevent reinforcing messages of attention (e.g. avoid eye contact / conversation)