What are the causes of sleepiness in children?

In a family with children, everything about the children is the most important. Ensuring the children's sleep practice every day is something that parents attach great importance to. However, some parents worry about their children's sleepiness. Sleepiness is a state of falling asleep beyond the normal physiological sleep time. Children's sleepiness may be due to lack of rest, or it may be one of the symptoms caused by certain diseases, so children's sleepiness should be paid attention to. Today we will learn about the causes of sleepiness in children.

There are many factors that cause sleepiness in children, the most common ones are fever, hypoglycemia, encephalitis, meningitis, drug side effects, poisoning, etc.

(1) Fever. Children's reactions to fever vary from person to person. Some are more excited and have restless sleep, while others are drowsier. There are also cases where drowsiness occurs first and fever is later discovered. People with a cold generally do not experience drowsiness, but there are people who experience a cold with fever and drowsiness, but their energy returns once the fever subsides. Common serious infections, such as sepsis, especially infections of the central nervous system, should be diagnosed and treated early if they first manifest as drowsiness, then develop into coma, and then have neurological symptoms such as convulsions and hemiplegia.

(2) Hypoglycemia. Early symptoms of hypoglycemia may include drowsiness. Children often have a history of not having dinner the night before and are sleepy and unable to get up in the early morning. They may have hypothermia, cold sweats, pale complexion, and may develop coma and convulsions. Newborns show symptoms such as lethargy, drowsiness, and difficulty feeding.

(4) Side effects of drugs. Some therapeutic medications contain sedative effects. For example, some antidiarrheal mixtures, medicines for treating colds and fevers, antitussive drugs, antiallergic drugs, and anti-vertigo drugs may cause drowsiness in children. If your doctor tells you that the side effects of the medication may cause drowsiness when prescribing the medication, then you don't have to worry, as the drowsiness symptoms will disappear after you stop taking the medication.

(5) Poisoning. Drowsiness is an early symptom of poisoning, often caused by accidental ingestion of drugs or inhalation of toxic gases. The most common cause is overdose of medications containing sedatives, such as swallowing adult antihypertensive drugs, sedatives and sleeping pills as small sugar pills. Some cases are caused by adults taking the medication by mistake. Inhalation of certain toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide (coal gas) and spray pesticides, can cause poisoning. Mild poisoning causes drowsiness, while severe poisoning quickly develops into coma or even death.

The above are the reasons for children's drowsiness. Fever, hypoglycemia, encephalitis, meningitis, drug side effects, poisoning, etc. can also cause it. If a child has drowsiness, you must first check whether he has a fever. If you have a fever, you should see a doctor to check the cause and receive treatment. If a child is drowsy and does not have a fever, it is important to be vigilant. For children with fever, antipyretics can be used as appropriate. For children who are drowsy but do not have a fever, they should see a doctor to check the cause and receive targeted treatment.