Karen Kay Hoyer, APRN, CPNP-PC

Karen is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in the Pediatric Sleep program at Children's Minnesota -- St. Paul campus. She attended the University of Missouri -- Kansas City where she received her Master's in Nursing degree and completed the PNP program. She began her career at Children's Hospital in 2006 in the Pediatric Sleep Clinic.

Sleep Medicine is a topic that I am very passionate about, as sleep disorders have a serious influence on health, mood, memory, daytime behaviors and quality of life. Good quality / quantity of sleep is vital to a child's well being so they are able to function their best during the day to learn , grow and be happy.

The most rewarding aspect of sleep medicine is successfully treating the sleep disorder and seeing the positive outcome, which can be life changing for the patient and family. Even minor recommendations for better sleep have proven to make a positive impact for the child and family. My experience in sleep involves working with all ages of children from infants to young adults in college, with a wide range of sleeping concerns.

Behavioral Insomnia is a sleep problem that involves difficulty getting to sleep with out the parents help and when the child wakes at night alerting the parent that they are awake to have parent help get back to sleep. These children are not self soothers and rely on the care giver to go to sleep. This is a very common sleep problem in children under 5 years of age, trouble falling asleep and frequent night awakenings. This sleep problem causes parents to have insufficient sleep due to their child's disrupted sleep, and influences parents to make an appointment in the Sleep Center for help. Behavioral Insomnia is one of the sleep concerns that I will commonly see during my work week amongst other sleep issues of snoring, insomnia, sleep walking, night terrors, and trouble awakening in the morning that is more common problem with adolescents. A customized sleep plan working with a sleep specialist can improve a child's sleep and does not involve needing medications for most kids to have good sleep. When the child is sleeping much better so are the parents and that makes for a happier family.