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I'm Just Tired
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Your Child
By Carma Haley
Carrie Eichler's son was having trouble paying attention in school when he was diagnosed with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS).
"When we took him into the doctor they did some screening and told me he had ADHD," says Eichler, a mother of three from Ashland, Ohio. "It didn't seem right to me. I knew it was something else. When I began asking if the ADHD could cause him to sleep walk, they referred him for a sleep study. He doesn't have ADHD, he has a sleeping disorder."
A child who regularly falls asleep in class, on the playground or at the dinner table may have a syndrome called Excessive Daytime Sleepiness.
Also called Sleepy Child Syndrome, EDS is characterized by a child falling asleep in unusual places or under unusual circumstances or a child who exhibits behaviors of being tired, or "sleepy."
The causes of EDS are attributed to various factors including other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, environmental disturbances, fear, bedwetting and obstructive sleep apnea, or snoring. As these interferences can cause a child to wake up frequently during the night or have trouble falling asleep at all, the child will not get an adequate amount of needed sleep, causing the sleepiness during the day. As the pattern continues the EDS gets worse, affecting their daily activity and function.
"EDS -- or Sleepy Child Syndrome -- is an often misunderstood disorder which occurs in children of any age, but is most common in those between the ages of 6 to 10 years," says Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of the sleep medicine center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "Sleepy children do not function as 'normal' children do because their bodies and minds have not received an adequate amount of sleep they need."
