Sleep and being 8

[kindacrunchy]

My almost 8 year old recently needed some benadryl due to itchy bug bites and he slept GREAT!!! He fell asleep easily and slept solid all night long. The next night he was practically begging me for benadryl so he could fall asleep easily and sleep well. Talk about an eye opener. I always knew he had problems turning off his brain so he can fall asleep and we have a very dialed in bedtime routine for him. I never realized that it was causing him stress. We are definitely using this new information from him to try to help him find ways to relax more at night so he can sleep BUT I just wanted to see if anybody had any suggestions as well.

Thanks!

[sapphire_chan]

Diet.

Itchiness, insomnia, anxieties, all point to a food sensitivity.

Oh wait the itchiness was bug bites. Well, the insomnia and anxiety are still indicative of food issues.

[ctdoula]

My 8yr old has always been a night owl & has also always had difficulty falling asleep quickly. She often spends 1-2 hours in bed before sleeping, and has complained over the years of not being able to fall asleep, etc. My dh also has insomnia/is a night owl and I'm pretty sure she has inherited it from him. 

Things that help us:

Reading in bed and then a dark room.

Listening to books on her MP3 player. It relaxes her and she'll listen for a while & then fall asleep. She has a Sansa Fuze (~$30 refurb) and we get books from the library and download them. 

We've tried Rescue Remedy, which sometimes helps. 

Melatonin has been recommended to us. My dh uses it when he has a hard time sleeping. I've tried it and it does help you drift off, with no side effects etc. It's safe to use in children if you have the right dose. We only have the adult version, so I haven't tried it w/my dd, but I've always meant to.

[meemee]

what is his exact problem? just falling asleep? or staying asleep too?

my dd has never had a problem staying asleep, but always, always falling asleep. 

she has the same deal. cant turn off brain. from when she was about 20 months till 3 she would stay awake for a couple or 3 hours a night sometimes asking all sorts of questions. 

but otherwise once she falls asleep she is dead to the world. 

dd is a night owl. her natural bedtime is midnight. anything before midnight and she struggles. anytime i try to send her to bed before midnight she'd struggle till midnight and then fall asleep.

so here are certain things i do with her. mind you its just her and me so its not a problem at all.

she needs her downtime. which means before bedtime. she cant go from come home to straight to bed. relaxing stuff like showers, music, etc dont work for her. esp. if her mind is going. tv/movies dont work for her at all. when we had a slumber party with my friends, she stayed up till 4 am with no problems. 

in fact an interesting book or new movie will keep her awake. it 'excites' her and she thinks about it and so struggles to fall asleep. i can relate to that. any 'excitable' task keeps me awake.

so i try not to let start a new book if she only has half an hour to read. she has spent many nights reading thru the night and going to bed after she finished her book at 5 - 6 am.

so here are some of the things i do. 

friday and saturday nights she stays up late if we are not doing anything early in teh morning. just having that helps her a lot.

spending an hour just laying in the dark and talking. to let her work out whatever she is thinking of. 

laughing. giggling. of course this happens naturally. 

we cosleep. she does fall asleep on her own but sometimes it really helps her for me to be there, with teh light off and talk.

last resort. very very light and gentle face massage. somehow i discovered that and that really helps her fall asleep. 

during warmer months if i tell her to get ready for bed and she complains she is not tired enough we go for a walk in the neighbourhood, because i know she needs to have her extra physical energy out and fulfill her intellectual curiousity, which is usually mostly about philosophical or ethical issues. 

her dad and i are both night owls. 

[kindacrunchy]

Well, we have been trying to have him get to bed earlier. I started to think that maybe he is overtired. Tonight he went to bed at 7:30 and was asleep by 7:50! He usually doesn't fall asleep until 8:45 or 9. After reading, we turn out the light and veg out on his fish tank for a few minutes. Hopefully we can get into this routine and hopefully this weill be the solution to his outbursts during the day. He does seem to sleep ok through the night except for the fact tht he does get up and get into our bed every night. making for some hard nights sleep cause he is simply getting too big to sleep with us!