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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]7 year old cannot sleep, gets up a couple times in the night.   We started giving melatonin on occasion but  she is getting worse, can you give it every night?  Is it addicting?[/quote]

Sometimes getting up in the middle of the night is a habit that develops.  Our child was doing this a little later, say around age 9.  We explained about sleep phases,  showed him some on the iPhone app to give him a visual picture.  Explained what the brain was doing during sleep (taking out the trash and filing new information).  Explained that it was actually normal to wake up in the middle of the night, but that the right thing to do was stay in bed and just roll over and try to close eyes.  We talked about sleep relaxation techniques -- breathing, creating comforting images of favorite/relaxing places, and how to make your brain stop thinking (imagery techniques from mediation like "weeding" the thoughts that pop into your head or erasing a blackboard with the thought), etc.  We emphasized that it's not necessary to "sleep" right away or solidly thru the night, but that one should try to "relax".  (Because if you focus on "sleep" people get anxious that they "can't fall asleep".  If you focus on relaxing, people don't get so anxious and can go thru relaxation techniques that almost always lead to sleep eventually.)

One key was to make any response during the middle of the night very minimal -- in the beginning a pat on the back, reassurance and guided help with relaxation techniques transitioning over time to pat on the back and reassurance and encouragement to do relaxation own, then withdrawing physical presence and just offering reassurance.

Eventually it (the middle of the night waking) disappeared or wasn't disruptive. [/quote]

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