can divorce affect sleep patterns in children?

Question

I just found out that after my parents got divorced (I was 7 years old) I started having night terrors. I am curious if anyone has heard of this happening / been through it. I know that divorce REALLY messes up the kids, but didn't know this could be part of it.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes as the kids could think it's their fault. Added stress.

Answer 2

Divorce and kids is a very ugly thing for them to go through. My 5 year old son and my 11 year old daughter are struggling now as I am going through a divorce. My soon to be exhusband thinks they will get over it and they will be ok. But he forgets that his parents werent around after they got divorced and he still isnt ok 30 some odd years later. Sleep patterns are only one avenue that affects kids when there is a divorce going on. Kids pick up on everything.

Answer 3

All children are different and will react differently. Unfortunately, I know what night terrors are. Before my parents were divorced, my night terrors started and continued on throughout most of my adult life. I went to a neurologist and was given many tests. I ended up having a seizure disorder that contributed to these terrors (combined with emotional issues).
With a combination of therapy and medication, I haven't had a night terror in over 5 years. I am still afraid of the dark though, lol.

Answer 4

Yes, divorce of anything traumatic can effect a child. Remember the things children look for are security, consistancy, love and parents being closest to the child are the onces that can effect the childs moods. If all of a sudden daddy or mommy are no longer coming home, the abnormal has overtaken the normal. Why? Where is daddy/mommy. It is almost like going through a death. do they still love me. subconscious is doing overtime and that = no sleeping.

Answer 5

Absolutely!!!
A divorce is much like the death of a family member. When it is your dad or mom, the pain in unbelievable!
But divorce is worse because you have the 2 people you love the most, back biting each other in front of the kids forcing them to choose sides.

Answer 6

The adults can journey betrayal, anger, sorrow, melancholy, lack of shallowness, a experience of having no administration (in different words a panoply of feeling). toddlers (because they're frequently interior the selfish degree) experience that they in in some way have contributed to the smash-up of their mom and father and act for this reason to their emotions. Misbehaving brings decrease back the interest of the mummy and father and elements them a feeling of a few administration over their lives. "If I try this they are going to stay mutually to unravel the issue" perhaps not the way they imagine, although the final theory. One toddler will you need to be a saint even as yet another will become slightly devil. there are this kind of vast quantity of dynamics in contact in a kinfolk smash-up. Egos must be overwhelmed and retaliation ought to correctly be performed out between kinfolk individuals. who's dropping administration, who's gaining it. Dependency and power. perhaps one or the different tires of the subservience and unfair familial negotiations. As our society learns and grows, more advantageous congenial divorces are coming about, yet not virtually adequate of them. some carry about bloodshed, others bodily battered and bruised, some with quashed egos and others only only dissolve.

Answer 7

I think it's the stress of the divorce/fighting/tension, and everybody expresses it in different ways. I think kids feel so powerless when a divorce happens, and that was probably your way of dealing with it. Hope that helps :)

Answer 8

Yes it could be part of it. When my ex and I got divorced my teen aged daughter started wanting to sleep with me...and she didn't even do that when she was SMALL.

Answer 9

Yes, sleep patterns can be affected by stress and worry. It happens to kids and adults.

Answer 10

Absolutely!