My daughter won’t sleep
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Anonymous
| I was this kid. My parents never taught me a sleep routine. It sounds silly for people for who feel naturally drowsy at night, but ADHD kids can need help winding down. Help her choose from a menu of ways to calm herself before sleep. Give her non-screen activities for before bedtime. At bedtime, help her to think about reading, meditation, stretching, listening to audio books, counting sheep, or other ways to let her mind relax. Add in sleep aids like eye shades, ear plugs, lavender scents, and melatonin as necessary. After a couple of weeks, you will have set a new routine. |
Anonymous
| Melatonin |
Anonymous
+ cut down on processed carbs and sugar. |
Anonymous
| We were in a very similar place and only now have hit the magic combo of ritual, tools, and melatonin. She starts her bedtime routine 30 minutes before, which includes a quick warm shower, a melatonin gummy, getting into bed with a weighted blanket, very little light in the room, listening to a short (15 minute-ish) story from a "calming story" collection we found, and then turning on a white noise machine. It took a while for it to work but her therapist warned us to stick with it for 30 nights without changing anything, because it takes time train your brain and body to respond to sleep cues, and sure enough by night 12 or so she started to see results. |
Anonymous
| OP, my son has ADHD and is not on a stimulant due to side effects and still has this problem. It is extremely common for kids with ADHD to have trouble calming their body, regulating their thoughts, and so on. Routine and sleep hygeine are essential. For us, consistent exercise is an absolute must. My son also takes 1 mg of melatonin -- if he forgets he is up until 1 am. |
Anonymous
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Melatonin is naturally produduced by the body when you go to sleep. We give our ds the amount he is supposed to take according to his pediatrician (it goes by body weight). Some brands are better than others as far as actually having the amount of melatonin it is supposed to have (according to our pediatrician).
My 14 yr old cannot sleep well and has always been this way. The ADHD meds he takes now make it worse. We got him a white noise machine, weighted blankets, and he has a kindle paperwhite to read with. I would relocate the echo dot to a living space and get her a white noise machine. As pp said, it takes time to change a sleep routine and learn good sleep habits and then to see the results of it. My 11 yr old has to be asleep by 9 or else it is very hard for him to fall asleep. He has to be in bed and start reading in bed by 8:45 or it won't happen. Kids are all different. GL |
Anonymous
| Sounds like anxiety. |
Anonymous
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Oh please don't start Melatonin. There have been no long term studies on it. My pediatrician is strongly against it and the two times I took it I had vivid dreams. My sleep tracker also reported a drastic decrease in deep sleep.
You can try a temporary fix if she just can't fall asleep because she is so overtired at this point. 25mg of Benadryl around 8pm. Only for 1-2 nights to re-set her. It always works for my kids IF there is no other issue. It is NOT a long term solution though. Other non medical things to try: Only allow lullaby or piano versions of her favorite songs. My 10yr old listens to TwinkleTwinkle Little Rock Star channel and has a white noise machine. She can have no screens after 8pm. Make sure she is getting outside after school, taking VitaminD and iron. Lack of exercise is usually a huge one. So make sure that is happening before or right after dinner. No sugar or caffeine after dinner. My 10 year old sleeps about 10-11 hours and my 13yr old about 9-10 hours. |
Anonymous
| More physical exercise before melatonin! My DD is 11. He plays a pretty intense sport. He has always had trouble falling asleep except on nights he has practice. Now he literally crashes the minute his head hits the pillow. |
Anonymous
Respectfully, it doesn’t sound like you know what it’s like to have real sleep problem. My child has no screens in his room, reads before falling asleep, trains for a sport five - seven days a week, never has caffeine... I could go on. He does NOT take a short-acting stimulant (or any stimulant) because even short acting affects his sleep. Some kids have a lot of trouble winding down and shutting their minds off. It is very typical of kids with ADHD. If a person follows all the rules and still takes hours to fall asleep, then that is a real problem. |
Anonymous
| How is she supposed to sleep when she takes meds that cause insomnia? |
Anonymous
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Are you sure she is not getting enough sleep? Could the grumpiness be from the meds? Because if she is falling asleep by 10 and getting up at 7:15, that is over 9 hours of sleep. Of course maybe the meds stop her from sleeping well. Can you go without them on the weekend so she can get a little more sleep?
You also want to limit electronics close to bedtime. And either limit the dot or only let her listen to something relaxing on it (it is the non screen one right? So no issues with blue light) Exercise might help, but it can be hard to force a kid to do vigorous exercise, especially in theses dark months. |