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I'm Just Tired
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Your Child
By Carma Haley
Carlton Stell, a father of four from Petersburg, Va. says his son's teachers asked for his son to be evaluated for ADHD.
"After hearing about EDS, maybe that's what he should be evaluated for," Stell says. "He sleeps when he shouldn't be, has a hard time going to sleep and then is awake when he should be sleeping late at night. I've already called my pediatrician."
Sleep evaluations are done either in the child's home or in a sleep disorder clinic. The child goes through the same nightly routine they normally would do -- bath, snack or bedtime story -- and then are monitored as they attempt to go to sleep. Cameras, monitors for heart rate and respiration are used to detect if there is indeed interference in the child's sleep patterns, Dr. Sheldon says. Once the evaluation is complete, medical professionals can determine what is causing the disturbance in the child's sleep as well as the best way to treat it.
"Needing a sleep evaluation doesn't necessarily mean that they need their sleep evaluated in a sleep lab overnight," Dr. Sheldon says. "But there are some that do because their sleepiness may be contributed to things such as sleep apnea or other sleep disorders that is causing an interference in their sleep patterns. These types of causes are best evaluated in a sleep lab rather then at home."
