More medicine helps them sleep?

When our Dr. said the same thing...I thought it sounded crazy.

So we raised her dose of Focalin XR. It worked!  On rare occasion we use melatonin. It helps her to relax and fall asleep faster. I usally give it to her an hour before bed. I tried them and they are very good and no drowiness in the am. You can also purchase in liquid.

Some children do seem "hyper" when their meds wear off. This can be rebounding. Switching to the patch as erased all rebounding so far.

Best of luck.

The wind up described by Jennew is a lot like what I experience my self. I do a lot better if I go to bed before the medication wears off, once it wears off I begin to wind up so I can't sleep. I have tried to let my self naturally wind down . . . .I was still up when the sun came up the next day.  . . . .natural wind down didn't work worth a poop.

ADD medications work to correct the dopamine problem in the brain. This is why they have a calming effect on hyperactive children. It make sense that the medications could help sleep regulation because the chemical imbalance is still being corrected, once the medications wear off the chemical imbalance returns and for some it returns with a vengeance.  

I know of some one who also takes a full dose of their ADD medications at night to help them sleep, and they report it works better than medication designed for sleep. It makes sense to me because non-ADDers must have the same amount of dopamine available for their frontal lobes even during the night other wise non-ADDers would become ADDers every night.

I have been on Adderall for nine years, and I do not experience any lack of REM sleep. I have taken my medication and promptly laid down and took a nap and I woke up feeling well rested.

Joshsammom, I was wondering what times you give your son the two 5 mg's?  Also, once he's asleep how does he sleep through the night and how much sleep each night do you think he gets?

The last 2 days I've been giving my son 5 mg's Focalin at 4:00 and it wears off before bed but it hasn't been so bad.  The first night he didn't stay in bed till 10:15 but slept till 7:30, last night he didn't come out of his room after 9:00 and I think was asleep by 9:30 and slept till 7:30.  We'll be changing his Med's again in a couple weeks when the pharmacy gets 15mg Focalin XR in, then we'll have to figure out what time to give him the 5mg and if the 15 works or we have to go back to 20.  He's in year round school so is out of school the first 3 weeks of Oct so we can adjust it then.

Thanks for your input!

Jennifer

To Southernbelle, do you mean you give him a dose in the morning and around 8:00 and that works?  Or an afternoon and 8:00?

Jennifer

Well, our pediatrician said about 1% of kids will fall asleep if given the medicine before bed, but another dr. we took him to last month (who believed in MORE medicine for everything) just automatically told us to give him more medicine before bed.  Can't really say if that worked though or not.  Because I would give it to him before bed for a couple days, then think it wasn't working and stop.  But like I said the last two nights have been great.  Maybe his body was just tired enough to sleep better the last two nights.  Don't know for sure. 

Maybe you should ask your Dr. what he thinks.  But remember, all Dr's are different.

Dear Joshsammom,

Thank you for telling me about your sons dosage and melatonin.  I think what I'll do is ask the pediatrician about it just to see what he says.  We have the same bedtime routine most every night, except when he has cub scouts, and we read and make sure he doesn't watch anything exciting in the way of movies, but still some nights he doesn't have a problem, and some he does.  Does the melatonin work quickly?

Also, I was wondering why you give your son the 20 mg XR AND 5 mg regular?  Does the 5 mg kick-in faster than the XR?

Thanks,

Jennifer

Yes! It worked. I've been having insomnia problems since I started Adderall, once was even up all night. Or if I finally did doze off, I would wake up a few minutes later and start thinking about all kinds of things instead of going back to sleep.

So yesterday I took 5 mg morning, afternoon and again at 8pm. The result - the best sleep I've had for a while incl. deep sleep that I was really missing. When I woke up, I felt weak and rubbery... from my body allowing itself to relax and start recuperating. Still pretty phased out all of today. I can't wait to get another good nights sleep! So I'll be dividing my (short term Adderall)  into 3 parts from now on. 7 1/2 mg was just a tad too much for me anyway but in case I'm going to the gym or have a big gardening project, 7 1/2 mg would be okay.  I know my dosage is lower than a lot of peoples but I think I finally found my sweet spot.

Jennifer,

Sorry I haven't checked this in awhile.  I give him 10mg of FocalinXR in the mornings, and 5mg of Focalin in the afternoon (around 4:00p.m.).  I don't give it to him before bedtime.  I just notice that when he gets that afternoon dose, he is ready to go to bed around 8:00p.m.  If the meds start wearing off, he starts getting very hyper and wil not go to sleep until around 11:00 p.m.  Hope this helps!

Here is a publication about ADD I found while posting in another thread I felt it may be of use here in this one as well . . . . .

http://www.drthomasebrown.com/pdfs/sleep_chapter.pdf

begins on page nine toward the end

Difficulty Falling Asleep: Medication

Stimulants used to treat ADD may contribute to difficulties falling asleep in two different ways. Sometimes an individual with ADD who is responding well to stimulant medication taken during the day may have insomnia resulting from taking a dose too close to bedtime. For most persons on stimulants an interval of at least 4

to 6 hours from ingestion of the last dose of the day will allow sufficient washout of the medication for sleep onset. Yet there are some who are able to get to sleep easily within just a few hours of taking a dose and others who need an interval of 6 to 8

hours or more from time of ingestion of their last dose before they are able to fall asleep.

Yet sleep of a person with ADD may also be delayed due to insufficient stimulant medication later in the day. Many clinicians still encourage patients to avoid taking a dose of stimulant in mid- or late-afternoon because they fear medication-induced insomnia. Often this plan backfires because of rebound agitation or irritability occurring in late afternoon or early evening after the last dose of stimulant has worn off. Kent, Blader, Koplewicz, et al 53 have reported that administration of a late afternoon dose of methylphenidate tended to help alleviate ADD symptoms without

adversely affecting sleep. Tirosh, Sadeh,et al. reported that methylphenidate given late in the afternoon tends actually to improve sleep for many patients with ADD. Clinicians whose patients taking stimulants for ADD are having chronic difficulty falling asleep should consider both of two possibilities: the patient may need less

stimulant coverage in late afternoon or they may need an additional smaller dose in late afternoon or early evening.

(end quote)

~underlining mine~