BATON ROUGE — If you have a difficult time staying awake and alert during the day, you may be experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness

Experts say there is a difference between being tired and being sleepy.

Needing to rest your body after a great workout or after a long day of work are examples of being tired — which is different from being sleepy.

"Being excessively sleepy during the daytime is, in a sense, falling asleep very quickly, having a very short period between the time you lay down or the time you sit down and actually falling asleep, and having no clear, obvious cause for being sleepy," Dr. Virend Somers, of the Mayo Clinic, said.

While there are many causes, excessive daytime sleepiness means you're not getting enough quality restorative sleep.

"When you need an alarm clock to wake you up, then by definition, you haven't had enough sleep…because you could have slept more,” Dr. Somers said.

Not getting the sleep your body needs can pose health risks.

"That daytime sleepiness seems to be linked to a higher risk of heart disease, of sudden death, of cardiovascular death," he said.

Dr. Somers says anyone struggling with excessive daytime sleepiness should talk with their care team to identify a cause.

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