I Need Some Sleep! | ADHD Information
I posted on here a while back about my son who is 4 years old and has been diagnosed with ADHD. He is currently taking 10 mg of Metadate a day, which has been a HUGE help for him. He's like a different kid! He's pleasant, on task, helpful, and able to carry on complete conversations. What a difference! The one problem I have is this: he gets up so early I want to cry! Before beginning medication, he was an early riser. He would get up between 6 and 6:30 a.m., which was fine because we leave for the sitter's house between 6:30 and 6:40. He would continue waking at 6 or 6:30 on the weekends, as well, but I was okay with that, because it was his schedule and was what his body was used to. Recently, his rising has gotten earlier and earlier. First, it was 6:00 a.m. Then it was 5:45 a.m. Then, it was 5:30 a.m. Then, it was 5 a.m.!!!! Now, we are at 4:30 a.m.!!! And once he gets up, there's no going back to sleep. He'll sit in his room and scream "Is it time to get up?" at the top of his lungs. We've tried giving him toys to occupy him when he wakes up. We've even let him keep his Leapster in his room for when he wakes up early. It doesn't matter. If he's up, the entire house is up, including his twin sister. We are all exhausted and don't know what to do. Please help!My son is also 4 and he has had the same issue but not as early. Early
enough to make us miserable. What we did was give him a digital clock in
his room. We tell him that if the first number is a 7, he can come and get
us. If it is not a 7 he cannot come out of his room and he must stay unless
he has to pee.
It took about 2 weeks. If he would come in our room before 7, we would
walk him straight back to his room and say that the first number needs to
be a 7. I will make him look at the clock and have him tell me what the
number is on the clock and ask him what number it should be.
Now he is asking us to teach him to tell time. Sometimes on the weekends
he will ask what time he can come in with the 'other'numbers and i tell
him 7:59. My husband laughs at me. We will settle for 7.Hi - we had the same problem with our son. He started climbing out of his crib at 16 months --and would get out of his bed 30+ times a night. Yikes. A friend recommended "Sleepytime Bunny Clock" and it worked. You set the alarm - say for 7:00 ..and at seven the ears of the bunny go up. Our son would stay in his room (for the most part) until the ears went up. He still is an early riser but will stay in his room until 6:00 with the digital clock. Good luck.hello...my son is 3 1/2 and also has major sleep issues..his dr has us using melatonin..it helps in combination with his Clonidine and if little brother isnt too loud he will sleep past 7 most days...hope you start getting some rest soon!Yikes, 4:30 would kill me! We are night owls at my house.
What time does he go to bed? Maybe he just doesn't need as much sleep as he previously did. Maybe if you push back bed time and hour or so, maybe he would sleep later.
Thanks so much for the responses. We do use Melatonin before bed, which helps enormously with him going to sleep. He used to scream for hours before bed, but with the Melatonin, he goes right to sleep. It's a lovely thing!
The past two days have been a little bit better. Yesterday, he woke up at 6:15, and today, he woke up at 6. I don't mind anything 6:00 and after. When we start getting into 4:00 and 5:00, it kills me.
We've tried adjusting his bedtime, but it doesn't make a bit of difference. Over the summer, we let him stay up until 8 or 9, and he was still up between 5 and 6. I looked online, and found that 4 year olds need between 10 3/4 and 12 hours of sleep at night. Greg goes to bed between 7 and 7:30, and sometimes doesn't fall asleep until 8, so he should be waking up between 5:45 and 8:00.
Hopefully, we are on an upswing, and he's going to start getting adjusted to sleeping until 6 or 6:30. Thanks for all of the support!
Did this start around daylight savings time? It could be adjusting to the time switch.Nope. I think it's just Greg. I wish it was daylight savings time. This morning was 5:30 again. Ugh.