Sleep centre appointments

During your appointment

Assessment appointments for new patients in our children's sleep clinic are usually 1 hour long, with one of our senior members of the sleep team.

You may see more than 1 member of the team.

We'll ask for a detailed history of your child's health and circumstances, with particular attention paid to the sleep problems they are experiencing.

At the end of the appointment, we'll discuss our impression of your child's sleep problems and make recommendations for tests and treatment if appropriate.

As we're a teaching hospital, students and visitors may be observing the team. We'll always ask your permission for them to observe your appointment.

Observers are usually consultants from other hospitals and services gaining experience of children’s sleep problems. They may also include other professionals (for example, specialist nurses, psychologists), doctors-in-training ('junior doctors') or medical students.

Experience gained in this way is an important part of training other doctors and healthcare professionals to look after children with sleep problems.

After your appointment

We'll often give you written information to take away with you after your appointment, including both general information about children's sleep and information specific to your child.

After your appointment (usually within 1 month), we'll send a detailed letter to the doctor who referred your child to us.

We'll also send a copy of this letter to you, your child's GP, and any other doctors or professionals involved in your child's care. This may include your child's school (with your consent).

Follow-up appointments

If we offer you a follow-up appointments, this will usually be shorter than your first appointment. Follow-up appointments are often with parents and carers alone, or by telephone if this is more convenient.

Further investigations

We may recommend further tests and investigations for your child. These are usually 'sleep studies', carried out on a separate date within 4 to 6 weeks of your appointment. We may also ask for your child to have a blood test or X-ray.

A small number of children may be recommended to have other investigations such as MRI, electroencephalogram (EEG) or lumbar puncture.

Before your child's sleep study

If your child is having a sleep study in hospital, you'll get a text from the team inviting you to download the Xploro app. Xploro aims to help your child feel more prepared for their upcoming study. Using the app, they can create an avatar to explore treatments, interact with environments, play games and more.

Treatments

We'll usually recommend a treatment that includes behavioural changes. This is because good routine and habits are key to managing sleep problems in children. We'll talk to you about this during your appointment, but may also refer you to local support services or our advanced sleep workshop.

Other recommendations for treatment, depending on the problem identified, may include:

  • a referral for potential surgery, for example, adenotonsillectomy for obstructive sleep apnoea
  • weight loss
  • medicine or the use of equipment to support severely abnormal breathing in sleep , or example, non-invasive ventilation like continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP)

Where possible, we will treat your child's sleep problem without medicine. When we do recommend medicine, we'll usually let the referring doctor know and they'll be asked to prescribe the medicine if they agree.

In a small number of circumstances, we'll recommend your child starts their medicine on the same day of their appointment. In this case, we'll provide a small initial supply of medicine from our hospital pharmacy.

Contacts

Outpatient appointment enquiries

Phone: 020 7188 4000

Email: PaediatricAppointmentsNeurology@gstt.nhs.uk

General enquiries

Phone: 020 7188 4649

Email: gst-tr.PaediatricSleepSecretaries@nhs.net

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

Sleep studies

Use these details for enquiries about appointments for diagnostic sleep studies which have already been discussed

Phone: 020 7188 3427

Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm

For referral contacts, please see our referrals page.

 

How to find us

Overnight sleep studies, daytime walk-in clinics and lung function tests

Children's sleep and respiratory centre
1st floor, staircase D, South Wing
St Thomas' Hospital
Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7EH

This department is only accessible by lift/staircase D.

Map of First Floor, South Wing, St Thomas' Hospital (PDF 219Kb)

Sleep outpatient clinics

Children’s Neurosciences Centre (Newcomen Centre)
1st floor, staircase B, South Wing
St Thomas' Hospital
Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7EH

This department is only accessible by lift/staircase B.

Map of First Floor, South Wing, St Thomas' Hospital (PDF 219Kb)