Your Childrens Health

While sleep deprivation is a serious issue that affects quite a few children is there is another sleep issue that is the complete opposite of deprivation, but still just as dangerous. Narcolepsy is when an individual has uncontrollable urges to sleep. Narcolepsy is found in children and teenagers all around the world.

Narcolepsy can make a child want to fall asleep just about all of the time. Even after a child takes a long nap narcolepsy causes the child to feel sleepy again in a few more hours. Children with an advanced case of narcolepsy may be putting their body and health at risk. Once the body beings to feel sleepy the body and all of the body muscles tend to relax. This may lead to a child collapsing or falling out of a chair. The amount of danger will depend on where the child is when the episode occurs. It is not uncommon for narcolepsy to occur when a child is playing with their friends, at school, or just hanging out at home.

Parents who notice a change in their child’s sleep pattern are encouraged to first discuss the change with their child. Ask them if they feel tired all of the time and if there is something that they can do to feel more awake besides going to sleep. If you children states that the only way to stop feeling tired by getting some sleep you may want to take your child to their doctor. Narcolepsy is a condition that will not go away and it is sometimes untreatable, but a physician may be able to offer a parent and their child helpful tips on how to manage and deal with the problem.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Sleep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.