suggestions on sleep | ADHD Information

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Does anyone have any suggestions on getting my daughter to sleep?she is on concerta 54 mg and clonidine 0.3 mg to sleep and is still awake everynight.Please if u have any suggestions please let me know.Im so tired and i know she is.Ive been going through the sleep problems with my 7 year old son, we didnt have the sleep problems until we changed his meds about 9 weeks ago. He went from Ritalin to concerta. its taking 3 hours to get him to sleep every night. It is so hard to go through this every night my husband and i dont get to spend any time together anymore without the kids, by the time hes finally asleep we are both exauted.  MY husband is sitting next to his bed tonight so he wont get up and get into anything  (thats sad)  anyone else have this problem??

Sallymcg,

Our routine is RIDICULOUS!  My husband and I take turns (me one night, him the next).  We go upstairs WITH the kids and just sit there until they are both asleep.  My ADHD son has never been able to fall asleep on his own.  He's nine.  He sleeps on his matress now on the floor next to his younger brother's bed.  The younger one falls asleep very quickly.  My nine year old can take UP TO two or more hours.  This with BENEDRYL.  I do my Internet research and reading while I'm up there, so I do get something done, but I am SO frustrated that it has cut time away from my husband.  ALSO, if my son wakes up (and I'm not there anymore, he freaks out and screams, "MOM!!!!!!!"  Then I just give up and go sleep in there so they both won't be awake. It's just ridiculous.

 

 

Leigh_GA_6638511.2559375Well as bad as this sounds I am so glad to find out I am not alone. My daughter has had so much trouble getting to sleep. We have tried everything. I experienced the same things you guys have. She would fall asleep about 10-11 after laying down about 8 pm.  Then she would wake up SCREAMING for me any where from midnight to 3 am. Sometimes she would go back to sleep and sometimes not.  This does take a major toll on families and marriages.  Good luck everyone.complex carbs and protein dinners. Vallerian root is a relaxer which is why we can get sleep to happen fast. have you tried white noise? My entire family needs a fan in the room to put us to sleep!Valerian Root and Melatonin are supposed to work well, but they don't work at all for me. I have to take 4 or 5 Tylenol PMs to go to sleep usually, and then I end up sleeping for about 12 hours and feeling like crap the next day(or night, depending on the time of day I wake up). TODD!!! is that the naughty finger!!!!Haha, I know....I'm sorry!!! It's the only new picture I had of me and since its so small I didn't think anyone would notice! I guess I should edit the pic so you can't see it. I don't mean it literally though, it's more of a greeting to my friends and I as odd that sounds..... My son is on 27mg of Concerta. We have had issues his whole life getting
him to sleep.

Recently the neurologist suggested we try melatonin. It has been a miracle
for us. The dr said to start with 1mg, and gradually increase up to 5mg as
needed. The first night of 1mg, my son fell asleep almost immediately upon
putting him to bed. It has been 6 mos, and he still falls alseep very easily.
(We give him the melatonin about one hour before bedtime.)

I understand it doesn't work for everyone. But this is relatively, safe, cheap
and easy to try. (Don't even need an Rx.)

Good luck!We're trying the melatonin tonight. It is nice to know that everyone else has been going through the same issues we have been.  I thought our family was just weird or something, or I had gotten too old to be a good parent.  Always frustrated and tired, more exhausted than anything.  But, in reality by all of your inputs, our experience is perfectly normal in the world of ADHD.  These forums have already brought me a wealth of information with everyone else's experiences with ADHD. Melatonin and Benedryl........a "mix" we've worked up to after years of sleep issues.  My son's psychiatrist started him on 3mg Melatonin and moved him up to 6mg.  Believe it or not, that stopped working, so he now takes Benedryl.  Otherwise, he'd be awake until past midnight.  BTW, we crush the Melatonin in a little pill crusher we got at the pharmacy and add it to a small amount of whatever to drink.  We use a straw to stir it around because the powder ends up on the sides of the cup if we don't.  All the meds stress ME out.  If he'd stay in his room and fall asleep on his own, I'd give up on the help all together, but he won't dare go to sleep at night unless I'm right there with him until he falls asleep.Have u ever tried imipramine for the sleep problem? My 9 year old takes it after we tried a bunch of different ones with no luck we decided to try it and so far so good...