ADHD SLEEPING ISSUES | ADHD Information

MY SON IS 4 YEARS OLD AND HAS ADHD ,HE TEND STO NOT WANT TO TAKE NAPS AT DAYCARE,SO HES NORMALLY UP FROM 6:30 AM PST UNTIL 9:00 PM PST OR LATER,,SOMETIMES ON THE WEEKEND HE WILL JUST GO,GO ,GO AND STAY UP FOR 12-17 HRS A DAY ...ITS HARD BECAUSE I KNOW HES RUNNING OFF STRIGHT ADRENELINE,THATS HE DOESNT HAVE. AND HE JUST GETS SO EXUASTED EVERYDAY ,,ITS HARD FOR HIS FATHER AND I TO DO ANYTHING,,LET ALONE US GET REST..LOLLAST NIGHT HE SLEPT FROM 8:00 PM PST UNTIL ABOUT 3:30 IN THE MORNING -WOKE BOTH HIS FATHER AND I UP AND WAA READY TO PLAY !!!! AFTER ONLY 7 HOURS OF SLEEP HE STILL WANTS TO GO..I WANT TO PUT HIM ON MELINTONIN ASAP WE HAVE A DOCTORS APPOINTMENT TOMORROW SO WE WILL SEE I HEARD 2.5 MG FOR HIS WEIGHT /AGE ...ANYONE ELSE EXSPERIENCING THIS??? SAME BEHAVIOROR ??

HELP I NEED SLEEP TO........LUCKLIY I HAVE A GOOD JOB THAT UNDERSTANDS WHY I AM RUNNING LATE..LOL

staced7238951.5679398148

Wow, 4 years old and you still get naps? My son gave his naps up before he turned 3. At 4 he was usually asleep by around 8:30 or 9:00 pm and was up around 6:30 am, so your son sounds like mine.

I suggest you teach him 2 things. One is 'play quietly in your room'. At 8 pm it's time to get on PJs, brush teeth, read a bedtime story. 8:30 pm it's 'play quietly in your bed' time - NO VIDEO GAMES, TV or anything else stimulating. Then at 9 pm it's lights out. He doesn't have to sleep, he just needs to 'rest' in bed.

Then, get a digital clock for him and teach him how to understand the first digit. I'm sure by 4 he can count to 10. Teach him that until the first digit on the clock says 6 (or 7 or whatever time) he is to play quietly in his room, or at least not disturb Mommy and Daddy unless it's an emergency (blood, vomit and monsters in the closet all count as emergencies). You could even consider preparing a sippy cup of juice or milk and keep it in the fridge and have him help himself (if he's that's kind of kid) to the sippy cup and a couple of crackers or whatever if he wakes up hungry.

Good luck - it's tough when the kid needs less sleep than the parents.

YEAH THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR.

MY SON IS ALSO 4 AND WAS UP AT 5.30/6AM UNTIL 10 PM AND WAS UP 5TO 6 TIMES A NIGHT.

A STRICT BEDTIME ROUTINE IS ESSENTIAL AND NO TV OR COMPUTER BEFORE BEDTIME.

HE IS ON MELATONIN 4MG AT BEDTIME AND 2MG THE FIRST TIME HE WAKES UP.HE ALSO TAKES PASSIFLORA COMP AND WE MASSAGE HIM WITH A HOMEOPATHIC OIL.

Well instead of having him sleep at daycare, how about some 'down' time instead? My son had difficulties with this as well. Here was his problem:

Everyday after lunch, the children all lined-up to use the washroom and wash hands and then they were expected to go into the nap room. Imagine 20 odd kids rustling about, trying to get organized for nap time. By the time the kids were all in bed, my son had a hard time transitioning from a hectic lunch period into a nap time. His body wasn't able to self-regulate in the same way. He was running aroung the center screaming the alphabet because he couldn't cope the quietness after all that commotion.

What did we do?

During the hustle/bustle my son was given a social story (I created that was a hands-on style book) about what is to be expected during nap time. He would sit in a quieter part of the room - away from the distraction (but visible) and because he liked the book I made, he was engrossed in the process. By the time he was done, the kids were just about all in the nap room. Also, we didn't have him sleep in the nap room. He just couldn't do it so the teachers put his cot outside the room and he played quietly on his cot with some quiet trinket toys .. that he'd only get if he earned it. If the teachers felt he couldn't cope THAT, they would have him help cleaning up. He loved sweeping so that was his job. It was quiet, independently done and no more screaming alphabets! LOL

Staced, my advice to you is to be very careful with accepting a 4 year old's diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. Be sure you have a 2nd & 3rd opinion before you label him. I'm not only a nurse but mother of a 13 year old son who was diagnosed at 5-6 years old. There's alot of things I wish I would have done differently and getting other doctor's opinions is just one of them. Trust me if it's not ADD/ADHD you don't want him to grow up with that over his head. School has always been a nightmare, not to mention his having friends, etc. I just don't want to see anyone else make the same mistakes that I have, you can't get those years back. Best of Luck to you and your child.

well i put my son last night for the first time on 4 mg of the melintonin-he went to bed at 8:45 and still was sleeping at 6:45 until i got him ready to go to daycare ,he was a little graugy but hopefully he will have a good day "

i definetly would not do the the BENEDRAL" i just spoek to my pediatricina yesterday and she said the melintonin is just fine better than the benedral...

so my son is going to start that FOCUS from native remedies and start to take

omego bright for kidz the 3/6/9 dha/EPA....SO WELL SEE

BUT REST IS THE KEY to having a better day at pre school,im currently looking in to a new preschool for him that focuses on special needs children

have a great day everyone!!!

Can someone explain this melatonin to me because my son's doctor said I could give him bendrayl 2tsp a night to let him sleep Well husband/dad says he doesn't need that well last night we put the kids down to bed at 8 and my son laid down and stayed in his room and he told me this morning he was sleeping but his dad said he was up all night watching t.v. because at 1 am he came into our room but the way his eyes looked I think he was sleep walking has any one had any problems with that? I was okay with the bendrayl because there's no side effects and he was doing good with it going to sleep but recently he's been waking up at 6am if he goes to sleep.....school starts on Monday and I'm trying to get them on a routine that is my two sons and my daughter do you let them stay up a little bit longer on the weekends or do you keep them on the same weekday schedule?

I had some of those problems but not as extreme except the nap issue. He hated naps and used to sing and kick walls when the kids were trying to sleep. This really upset the preschool and the daycare, as you can imagine. There wasn't much that I could do about it. They tried the quiet time thing, and the book thing, and it worked 50% of the time. Eventually he outgrew naps at age 5 1/2; that was the solution. Since he really needed the nap, on the weekends I would drive him around in the car until he fell asleep. Sometimes we drove for 1.5 hrs. Sounds extreme, but without the nap he was just horrid.

I would get PJ's on and brush teeth at 7:30PM. No TV, video -- nothing stimulating. Read books for 30 minutes. Give him melatonin 20 minutes before bed. At 8pm, put him in bed and keep the house quiet. My son is 7 and gets 1 MG. Start with the lowest dosage and work your way up until it works. I think you can go up to 6 MG for a child. I have also heard that some children have an undetectible allergy to milk that directly interferes with sleep. Maybe cut out the milk at noon for a couple of days just as an experiment.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the body that regulates sleep.

Just trying to help sorry that's what my son's doctor told me to try sorry again

We started out using the benedryl. My daughter has allergies anyway, so I'd just skip the allergy med & use benedryl instead & kill two birds with one stone. BUT, I wasn't happy with how groggy it made her. So I researched melatonin & started using that instead.

Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is a chronobiotic, a neurohormone involved in the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle. It is produced in the pineal gland through the conversion of tryptophan, first to serotonin, then N-acetylserotonin, and finally to melatonin. Melatonin is normally secreted during darkness, in response to the release of norepinephrine from retinal photoreceptors and the resulting activation of the retino-hypothalamic-pineal system. Levels begin to rise at nightfall, with peak serum concentrations typically occurring between 2 and 4 AM in adults.

Dosing
Based on the case series and clinical trials published to date, melatonin should be initiated at a dose of 2.5 to 5 mg in children with sleep disturbances. The dose should be administered in the evening, approximately 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime.

When the melatonin receptors in the brain are exposed to too much of the hormone, they become unresponsive.

As a result of these inadvertent overdoses, "many people don't think melatonin works at all," said Wurtman, who is also affiliated with the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. This belief, coupled with potentially serious side effects related to high doses such as hypothermia, has earned the hormone a bad reputation in some places.

staced27 -- great news! I hope you got a good nights sleep!! Just reduced the MG a bit. He should not be groggy in the morning. You need to hit just the right dosage.

Does Focus have DMAE in it? DMAE caused insomnia for my son....

regarding the benadryl it has been stated that if you give a child that has adhd anything with the antihistamines like benadryl has sometimes it has a adverse effect on some of the kids.. I had to find out the hard way i gave my son benadryl one night and he was up all night long..The doctor told me to give him the benadryl and of course i did well his doctor no longer advises giving a child benadryl to sleep..

i never had luck with the melatonin wish i did..
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Well instead of having him sleep at daycare, how about some 'down' time instead? My son had difficulties with this as well. Here was his problem:

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It was same here, when dd was in Kindergarten. She hated naps but luckily she has great teacher who would take her and teach her new songs while other kids sleep.

Dd was allways on her legs before sunrise.

My son is 12 and I have the hardest time with him sleeping. Is there a med that others are taking?

my son is the same way he is 5 yrs.old . he is on 8mg of MELATONIN a night and is in bed by 8 p.m. every night and wakes up in the morning all ready to go again. it does make him tried the next day. it is better than the other stuff the doctor wanted to give him with all these side effects. melatonin really works and start out with one pill about one hour before bed time. than see how they do and ajust from there. you will get a good night sleep and be able to handle this better.

any questions email

Elizmic200138952.74082175938 MG is awfully high! I've always heard & read never to go over 5-6 MG. My daughter is 12 & takes 3 MG. She sleeps well. We're at the point now that she can read her own body, so I just have her tell me when its one of those nights she needs the melatonin. before i started to give him the melatonin he would stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning and then we started to give him half of one and he would go to bed at 10 or eleven and with a whole one he start to go to be at 9 or 10 that was about a year ago. now he is getting use to them and his physician said it would be ok because the other med she had him on at night started to worry me. because some of the side effects were showing up. but always talk to your physicain first never talk someone opinion. and as a parent for 18 years i am new to this also. his pysic doctor is the know dr. Deborah Simkin that studies autism and adhd and add. I didn't mean for anyone to just start giving meds to their kids by and means i am sorry if i came across like that. my son is also going to be tested for autism.