Why Can’t This Kid Sleep?

January 22, 2019

Alana, age 17, comes in complaining that she is tired all the time and struggles to stay awake during school. Or perhaps it’s six-year-old Miko, whose mother tells you that Miko avoids going to bed and often gets up in the middle of the night. Miko says he doesn’t feel sleepy, but his teachers say he is often inattentive and sometimes quarrelsome. The most common sleep problems among young patients are these and other forms of insomnia or insufficient sleep, according to REACH faculty member Robert Kowatch, MD …