HELP! Concerta and sleeplessness? | ADHD Information

My son, age 6, started Concerta yesterday. The teacher had not noticed any changes during the day, but by 6:00 he was wired.  Normally, he goes to bed by 7:30, exhausted and without much of a fight.  Last night it was 11:30 and he was still going.  Just talking and talking and talking!  I finally had to bring him in bed with my dh and I.  I did not want to leave him in his room, who knows what he would have gotten into.  He feel asleep around midnight but was up by 5:00 a.m.  He is normally a very early riser, but we can't do that for many nights in a row...

Has anyone had a similar experience?  Are we in for a lot of sleepless nights?

Laura in MN

meandmyboyz197739036.3029050926

I did not have anything to this extreme, but a side effect is sleeplessness...try some melatonin tonight...call your doctor and get it ok'd....you can buy it at the dollar store, pharmacy, health food store...pretty inexpensive.  I gave it to my son about 1 hour before bedtime, others do it 1/2 hour before...

I and a lot of others have had good results with it.  There are also other things that can be added such as Tenex, and Clonidine if necessary, but I would wait to see if Concerta is going to work as you want it to in other aspects of your sons life before you add more prescription drugs...but that is just my opinion. 

Good luck

First of all, kids will react diffently to meds, especially when just starting to take them. The first day my son was on concerta, he was wired to the max - real fidgety and upset stomach. It was very hard to watch his behaviors and I could tell he didn't know what the heck was wrong with him. This all disappeared after the first day or two. The sleeplessness did not. Noticing that first and foremost is important - we didn't and it caused a lot of unneeded tantrums and problems with school. We recently had put him on Clonidine .1mg about an hour before bed time - it helps a lot! Some people use melatonin or tenex/guanfacine (sp?). Do some research, talk to the doctor, and one of these might help your son.

HTH and good luck to you!

our ped. told us to use a 1/2 tsp of benedryl at night...cody has allergies anyways so she said it would put him to sleep....

Thank you all for your advice.  I am going to talk to his ped and psycologist today.  I am hoping that all the "strange" behaviors go away after a week or two!

Thanks again!  

We also went through a similar situation with our 6 year old who is on
Concerta. The first week or so was strange. I noticed him doing some
wierd mouth movements and licking his lips a lot. He also did some of
the stuff you mentioned with being extra crazy when the meds wore off.
But, I gave it a week and that all went away. I talked it over with the
doctor and it was pretty normal to have an adjustment period.

As far as the sleeplessness....that is something that hasn't gone away.
This kid (before he was on meds...back in May) would go to bed at 8:00
every night. When he got tired, he'd start asking me to tuck him in. Or,
he'd just disappear and I'd find him in bed. We were very lucky! But, with
the medications (we've also tried Focalin XR, Daytrana and Straterra) he
has insomnia pretty bad. So, I discussed the idea of using melatonin with
the pediatrician and he was all for it. He suggested giving 1/3 of a pill at
night before bedtime. It really seems to help get him settled down and
keeps him in bed. Otherwise, he'll be up every 10 minutes for an hour!
It helps if I remember to give it to him at least 30 minutes before
bed. And, it doesn't make him drowsy or extremely sleepy, but just sorta
calm and helps him fall asleep easier and stay alseep.

Oh, yes!!  We went through the same thing when my son first started his Adderall XR.  It lasted a couple of weeks but we did get his dosage lowered due to side effects such as sleeplessness and loss of appetite.  He is doing better now, but he still has trouble going to sleep and now instead of waking up on his own around 5:00am, I am having trouble getting him to get up.  It's like the meds are now in his system and his body is adjusted....Our therapist suggested waiting until am to give him a bath since a bath makes some people "wake up".  Anyway, I figured I would at least try it.  Plus, giving him a bath in the am will allow extra time at night to get everything settled down.  I tried the bath this am and it was great.  My ds went to bed @ 9pm and and he got up so much easier this morning but still late.  I overslept because my body will need time to re-adjust to going to bed earlier now.  Anyway, he took his bath this morning and was in such a great mood before going to school.  It made me feel better because he felt better.  He didn't complain about getting dressed or anything.  I think he just felt better overall.  We will continue to move the bedtime toward 8pm but it will have to be gradual.  Good luck with this, and I know what you are going through.  Give the meds time to get in his system good and for his body to adjust and if you're still not satisfied then you should discuss with your ped.