A child's performance in school is important to every parent, so when their teacher says they're having trouble paying attention and their grades are slipping, doctors say it may be time to take action.

But the problem isn't always an attention deficit disorder. Sometimes the problem is much more simple, and often overlooked. This was the case for sixth grader Javen Martinez.

Martinez was struggling in school, barely getting by with a "C" average. "At school he wasn't getting what was going on there, because he was off in la-la land," says his mother Brandi Martinez.

At first his parents thought it was a problem with his motivation. Javen says it was something else entirely, "I was very tired because I couldn't breathe well, so I didn't get the sleep I needed."

After some tests, doctors at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center found out why Javen was tired all the time. "The biggest thing that we see for sleep problems that are obstructive in nature, where kids quit breathing, is abnormal tonsil hypertrophy," explains Dr Brad Smith, Medical Director for Pediatric Sleep Testing at St. Mary-Corwin.

With Abnormal tonsil hypertrophy, the tonsils become enlarged, and it’s that situation that was impacting Javen’s sleep. Frequently, the condition would cause him to stop breathing while he slept. Since his tonsils were removed, his mother says he's back to normal, sleeping better, and his grades are improving. "I don't have to stand over his bed in the morning saying, ‘Get up, get up, get up, get up.’ Now I tell him once and he is up and ready to go," says Martinez.

Martinez is also thankful she had him tested because it revealed another problem that may have been missed otherwise. "You know it saved us from, in his case with his sugar elevated, going into a full blown diabetes," says Martinez.

Doctors say, there are more than 80 diagnosable sleep disorders and because sleep is such an important part of a child's mental and physical growth, parents should take warning signs seriously. Those signs include: loud snoring, difficulty focusing, excessive daytime sleepiness, a decrease in school performance, poor sleeping patterns or difficulty sleeping, and even obesity.

Only a few hospitals in southern Colorado offer extensive pediatric sleep testing services, Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs and St. Mary-Corwin in Pueblo are just two of them. "It is a treatment that most times doesn't involve any kind of medication," explains Smith, "you fix the problem with sleep and the behavioral problems go away."