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OMG, How to Deal With The "I Can't Sleep"s and therefore need to read all nights? - Page 2

post #21 of 32
3/18/10 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by expecting-joy View Post
work. She is only home from school at 4 pm, dinner is at 5 pm, bedtime is at 7 pm, and she is very, very pokey at dinnertime and eats many, many courses.
Suggesting something completely different, but is she getting enough outdoor time? For my dc's, if they get some fresh air and some physical activity in the later afternoon, they eat better dinners faster and go to bed more readily. Just a thought.
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post #22 of 32
3/18/10 at 1:32pm
What are your sleep habits like? DH and I are both night owls, and I'm a generally awful sleeper. In our case, we think it's genetic.

DD started taking melatonin at 7 because of her complete inability to get to sleep at night - I think she was up until midnight most nights then.

I'll also ditto Laura's suggestion re physical exercise in the late afternoon - this is definitely key for DS.
post #23 of 32
3/18/10 at 2:05pm
I have two like this, although ds reads, then invents, and plans, etc. He needs melatonin to sleep most nights. It's a godsend for him.

My bright, dyslexic, dd recently had the world of print opened up to her after years of really hard work (see me jumping for joy here!). She is so enamored of books, storeis, non-fiction...it's like a thirsty man drinking from a well, lol. She reads well after her bedtime right now. I don't think this will last forever, but the pure enjoyment has taken over, along w/some rough mornings. That doesn't help you, op, but I did want to mention some of the joy in seeing a child read late at night.
post #24 of 32
3/18/10 at 4:44pm
I was one of those kids. I'm one of those adults, too, when I'm particularly anxious. Read, read, read until I'm asleep and the book falls off my lap, so my mind doesn't dwell on awful stuff.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aufilia View Post
She claims she never sleeps, but I suspect she just doesn't know where the line between awake and asleep really lies.
This is my daughter. Obviously she falls asleep at some point.
post #25 of 32
3/18/10 at 11:27pm
Thread Starter 
She has two outdoor recesses (where her teachers say she is always running the whole time - and I've seen it when I'm there at that time) and gym/pe at school, so she is getting exercise, and they usually have science outside, too. They study the woods and do experiments and last week they helped tap maple tree and watched the syrup being made right there at school.

Dh and I are both night owls, although when I was younger I liked getting up really early to have alone time. I take awhile to switch gears.

It is possible that something is on her mind. I think school can be socially stressful, and sometimes family life can be stressful for her, too. She is still recovering from the end of only-child-dom, and although she loves her sister dearly, like me she's really a one-on-one kind of person.

I am trying to give her more time to read. She is on vacation now, so we won't really know how things are going for a few weeks. Right now I don't mind her staying up late and sleeping in as she won't have to get up early again for a couple weeks. I'll be sure to start easing her back into her schedule next week.
post #26 of 32
3/20/10 at 1:29am
lots of exercise earlier in the day will have them worn out by bedtime.
post #27 of 32
3/26/10 at 2:30pm
i havent read other responses, but for DD1 we use .25 mg of sublingual melatonin. otherwise she would be up all night for nights on end.
when i was a child i never wanted to sleep when i had books available to me to read, and since i had my own extensive library as a kid, i rarely got any sleep. i think melatonin would have helped me ALOT.
post #28 of 32
3/27/10 at 3:32am
Aw, I want my son to go to a school where he get to make maple syrup

I was that kid, too. And I am that adult, except sometimes the two sleeping kids piled across me help pull me into dreamland. I would try really, really hard to honor that need to wind down.

If you find she's getting pulled too much into her novel, can you set out a smaller subset of books to reread that help her sleep? Nothing too exciting, maybe non-fiction? We still read my son to sleep, and there are definitely some books that help him fall asleep more easily than others.

GL!
Heather
post #29 of 32
3/27/10 at 3:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by expecting-joy View Post
but it would have to be a pretty gentle storyline for bedtime. Hmm, I'll have to think about music and books on tape. That's definitely outside what I was thinking...
My daughters listen to Jim Weiss's Goodnight and Sweet Dreams CDs. They have other stories, but these are the most calming so they like to go to sleep to those.
post #30 of 32
3/29/10 at 9:05pm
I'm still this way. I try to use the technique that my MIL used on my husband (who used to be terrible as a kid, but who is quite reasonable about putting his book down these days, so her methods didn't mess him up at least!)

She said he could read until "bedtime" (say 8:00) and then he had to stop and turn out the light for a full hour. If he still couldn't sleep (by 9:00), then he could read for an hour. Repeat. He said that he almost always did fall asleep the first hour...whereas before his mom started he'd stay up reading for at least 2 hours, sure that he wasn't tired.
post #31 of 32
4/1/10 at 5:07am
my high energy 7 year old still needs some bit of outdoor activity after school to help her relax enough to sleep.

dd is a nightowl. most nights she doesnt have time left over to read. seh is the sort like many others here where reading 'wakes her up'. i am that way too so i understand. on days even after exercise when she cannot sleep - i lay down with her and either gently massage her face or scratch rub her back while i tell her a story - either make up one or talk about family history. for dd i know story telling really helps her work out the extra intellectual energy that she needs to get out of her system.

she is right now on spring break and is rarely asleep before midnight. she never went to bed before midnight till she started first grade.
post #32 of 32
4/1/10 at 9:14pm
How much time does she have to read in a day? Does she get to lose herself in a book at any other point in the day? My dd1 is very good about turning off the light and going to sleep as long as she has had enough time to read during the day, otherwise, she stays up late (which would not be a problem if she would learn to sleep in--but that is a separate issue).

I know that, for me, I will sacrifice sleep for reading, too. I love audio books for this purpose because they help me to wind down, and I can listen in the dark, which helps me to drift off faster.
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