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Home › Articles › General › I'm Just Tired

I'm Just Tired

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Your Child

By Carma Haley

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"The moderate or intermediately sleepy children we know a lot less about," says Dr. Sheldon. "It isn't until the child is suspected of suffering from something else or having problems in school do medical professional even get a chance to evaluate the child and even then, a sleep disorder is usually last on the list of suspected causes."

The signs and symptoms of the moderately sleepy child are numerous. Children with moderate EDS cannot offer their full attention to tasks either at home or at school. They do not have the energy to put into homework, sports, extracurricular activities or even playing outside with friends, says Dr. Sheldon. These children have been wrongly diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) quite frequently due to their inability to concentrate on tasks offered to them.

"The symptoms of EDS are exactly the same as those that define ADHD," says Dr. Sheldon. "The symptoms of sleepiness and ADHD are identical. There is more and more data that states that a large majority of children who have symptoms of ADHD actually have the underlying disorder related to their sleep."

Diagnosing EDS
Diagnosis of EDS is a fairly simple procedure that begins at home. Once parents notice a child's sleepiness, they should begin documenting when the child is sleeping, what time of day it is, what situation they were involved in and how long the child slept before being aroused or awakened, Dr. Sheldon says. The next step is to seek medical intervention by discussing the situation with the child's pediatrician.

A girl."The moderate to profoundly sleepy child needs to be brought to the attention of the pediatrician -- and the pediatrician needs to take these symptoms seriously and refer them for a sleep evaluation," says Dr. Sheldon. "In addition, children who are having problems in school and may be showing symptoms similar to those thought to be ADHD -- who would otherwise be a 'normal' child and does not have any kind of medical condition that would contribute to these symptoms -- also needs to have their sleep evaluated."


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