My daughter won’t sleep

[Anonymous]

DD is 11. She’s on meds for add which she takes in the morning. Her bedtime is 9 PM but I need to move it back to try to get her to sleep at a reasonable hour. But no matter what time she goes to bed or I should say to her bedroom 830 or 9 o’clock or 930 or 10 o’clock. She always says she’s not sleepy and wants to read or listen to her Echo Dot. She’s often grumpy or sleepy during the day so clearly she’s not getting enough sleep but you can’t force a tween to go to sleep. I’m considering melatonin but I’m wondering if you have any other suggestions.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention she needs to wake up by 7:15 to get to school on time.

[Anonymous]

My daughter couldn't sleep, maybe she was just turning 12, and would lie awake with her mind racing. The pediatrician was absolutely fine with her starting melatonin. My daughter takes the 1mg chewable tablets from whole foods. It's such a low dosage, and again the pediatrician said it was totally fine. She takes it around 8:30pm every night and it works really well.

[Anonymous]

Part of the problem is she's 11 and has an echo dot in her room. What other electronics does she have access to? Can her meds be slightly lowered? Does she need more physical exercise? Having a child on uppers AND downers doesn't seem great.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried the Calm apps and that sort of thing? My son says they work well for him.

[Anonymous]

I agree that she doesn’t need the echo dot in her room.!

[Anonymous]

She just got the Dot for Christmas and I am wondering if that was a bad idea. She has no access to any other electronics or screens at any time except the family television on the weekends.

I suggested she play a calming music at night but she only wants to listen to a certain type of music, pop or wrap I suspect. I’m sure that’s not helping.

She does not get enough physical exercise so I’m trying to add to that and the pediatrician recommended starting her on melatonin but I just thought I would ask here first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She just got the Dot for Christmas and I am wondering if that was a bad idea. She has no access to any other electronics or screens at any time except the family television on the weekends.

I suggested she play a calming music at night but she only wants to listen to a certain type of music, pop or wrap I suspect. I’m sure that’s not helping.

She does not get enough physical exercise so I’m trying to add to that and the pediatrician recommended starting her on melatonin but I just thought I would ask here first.

Please don’t start melatonin before trying to fix the other things (electronics, too much sugar before bed, more physical activity)

[Anonymous]

Lots of discussion about meds/sleep issues over on the Special Needs forum, so may be worth your time to do some searching there too. I agree that improving sleep hygiene is a good first step - consistent bedtime, removal of the Dot, more exercise, etc. 1mg of melatonin really isn't much and was hugely helpful to my DD who is also on a stimulant medication. She also takes a chewable form around 8 p.m. each night and is usually ready to fall asleep right around 9. You can also explore alternative stimulants to see if one might have less of an effect on sleep. Jornay is a new medication now available for ADHD that is dosed at night and activates about 10 hours after dosing; it has less sleep-related effects than meds like Concerta, Ritalin, etc.

[Anonymous]

No screens of any sort an hour before bed.

That is a non negotiable rule on our house. Consider that.

Also, is she active enough during the day? When my kids log less than9000 steps they're not nearly as tired than when they break 10,000.

[Anonymous]

1 hr of vigorous exercise daily

[Anonymous]

All the sleep hygiene recommendations plus maybe instead of melatonin try tryptophan. Might be safer in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of discussion about meds/sleep issues over on the Special Needs forum, so may be worth your time to do some searching there too. I agree that improving sleep hygiene is a good first step - consistent bedtime, removal of the Dot, more exercise, etc. 1mg of melatonin really isn't much and was hugely helpful to my DD who is also on a stimulant medication. She also takes a chewable form around 8 p.m. each night and is usually ready to fall asleep right around 9. You can also explore alternative stimulants to see if one might have less of an effect on sleep. Jornay is a new medication now available for ADHD that is dosed at night and activates about 10 hours after dosing; it has less sleep-related effects than meds like Concerta, Ritalin, etc.

Agree that it's probably the meds combined with poor sleep hygiene. DS has a white noise machine, plus we changed the lighting in his room if he stays up to read a bit. Absolutely no electronics of any sort in the bedrooms + on bad nights we'll do a magnesium drink, hot tea, or a very small dose of melatonin (I try to keep melatonin to a minimum because we use it when we travel).
All of this combined, means reasonable sleep.
My DS takes concerta (low dose at 18 mg).
Mainly, I make sure that the bedroom is for sleeping and maybe reading a paper book, and he goes to bed at the same time every single night. I had insomnia and the mental aspects of it are crucial to get on top of.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely talk to her doctor about the meds. My DD had the same issue and reducing her dose helped immensely.

Making her bedtime earlier will not have a lot of impact on when she actually falls asleep...

[Anonymous]

What time is she actually falling asleep?