“We never take sleepy children and adolescents seriously enough
,” notes Professor Yves Dauvilliers, head of the sleep and wakefulness disorders team at Montpellier University Hospital.
Faced with a child or adolescent who falls asleep in class, we tend to blame the short nights, too much screen time, the abuse of cannabis, etc. “
But when we cannot fight against an irrepressible desire to
sleep
, and whether this occurs every day or every two days, it is perhaps the sign of a real illness: narcolepsy
,” warns the specialist.
In France around 20,000 people are affected, but only one in three are diagnosed.
This sleep disorder, which usually begins in childhood or adolescence, is characterized by normal nighttime sleep and rapid, uncontrollable falling asleep, which can occur at any time during the day.
“After ten to fifteen minutes, you…
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