RESUMO
The narrative review is used as a methodological tool for the presentation of this article. A search was made in the PubMed, Elsevier, Ebsco, and Medline databases using temporal limits (publications from 2005 to 2016), in the Spanish, English, and Portuguese language, and by the type of persons analysed in the study (adolescents), along with the keywords in English: Adolescent/teen, tiredness, fatigue, sleepiness, drowsiness. A total of 33 articles of relevance were obtained for the diagnostic and therapeutic approach of the tired adolescent in Primary Care. It was found that the main cause of excessive daytime sleepiness and drowsiness in adolescents is insufficient or inadequate sleep. For this reason, a sleep assessment should be a routine component of the clinical evaluation of adolescents, and as the initial approach to dismiss secondary causes.