Daytime sleeper only!

[Imakcerka]

My 8 yr old DD, sleeps during the day.  As in she'll stay up all night and sleep during the day.  We went through years of fighting this behavior simply because we were working parents.  She would sleep through daycare making her a daycare providers dream and nightmare since she was stuck at home the whole time.  And once school started she would stay up late fall asleep an hour before school started, wake up go to school and then try to stay up all night again. 

We tried everything.  Except forms of medication.  Simply because I've never given any of my kids anything and was never given anything as a kid and have stayed away from everything as an adult.  Except for the times I took midrin for migraines.

So a friend of mine suggested melatonin, does anyone have any thoughts on this?  I've never used it and honestly I'm not sure about it.

Also her doctor thought she was an enigma since she's perfectly healthy even tempered and ahead of most kids in the learning arena.  He told us not to worry about it.  However it's hard to sleep myself when I hear someone wandering about for a few hours.  Making a sandwich at three am and playing with her cat.  My husband stays up with her now so that she's not alone but it's hard for him too since we have one other kids on a normal sleep schedule. 

[momof3tobe]

My son has always been a horrible sleeper- he can stay up all night and be fine the next day-it's very weird and disturbing- it makes me wonder if there is something neurologically wrong with him. I consulted a nutritionist and she told me it was ok to give him melatonin so I started giving him just a tiny bit- 1/4 of a milligram- and it works like a charm. He falls asleep quickly at 8pm and wakes up refreshed at 7am. He's 6 btw.

[Imakcerka]

Thanks, I think I'm going to try it.  I need her to live on the rest of the families schedule.  We like and miss her when she's doing her own thing.  I picked some up last night, they were 1 mg.  I'm going with 1/2 of that.  I talked to her about it and she actually was upset by it.  She doesn't want to be controlled like that. I need to talk to her again since I didn't push it.   Hopefully she understands.  Fingers crossed.  Otherwise I'm not forcing her... I might bribe  her but I'm not forcing her.

[Imakcerka]

Ah thwarted by the little person.  I ended up giving her 1/2mg.  She became tired enough to lay down and cuddle with me after being up 12 hrs.  She slept from 11 pm to 2 am.  She was then found out in the front room on the computer.  WHY?!  I know it's only the first day.  But can't I have a sliver of hope that I will be able to sleep through the night someday? 

[momof3tobe]

uh-oh. Yes the melatonin tends to wear off in a few hours- especially if you are only giving the smallest dose possible.  When I first started giving my ds it, he would wake up after two hours and then I would have to go lay in bed with him to get him back to sleep.  I told the nutritionist this and she told me to give him a higher dose but I wanted to see if we could work out the kinks without raising the dose.  It took a little while but his body finally adjusted to sleeping for longer periods and now he doesn't wake up.  What you might want to try is giving her a 1/4 mg right before bed and then when she wakes up a few hours later giving her the other 1/4.  You could also try giving her a whole mg (which is what my nutritionist suggested) but I was afraid he would have side effects- such as having very vivid dreams or feeling groggy the next day which would make him dislike sleeping even more.  The only problem you might have is realizing when she wakes up in the middle of the night- it sounds like she just quietly goes about her business while you sleep so it will be hard for you to know!

 The way I got ds on board with sleeping was by telling him that sleeping properly was going to help him grow and be healthy.  He is deathly afraid of his younger brother getting taller than him so he wanted to do everything he could so that would not happen!  I am also saving up to purchase a light book- I think ds will need it during the winter time.  It might help your dd regulate her sleep cycles, too.  The website is www.litebook.com if you want to check it out.  Good luck- keep me posted!

[Imakcerka]

Good Ideas, thank you.  I think I'll try that 1/2 and 1/2.  I'll let you know how this works out. 

[Chicky2]

Almost all of us use Melatonin, and everyone in my best friend's house do too.  I know lots of people who swear by it.  It's what your body is supposed to make enough of anyway, but some people just don't.

We use 5 mg, even for my 4 yo.  I started using the time released kind and it seems to work better.  There are no side effects from melatonin like grogginess or anything like that.  For adults, I believe it's safe to go up to 10 or 15 mg, I forget which, but it's alot more than any of us ever need.

OP, have you really talked to your dd about how much you all would love her to be on the same schedule because you miss her?  If so, what did she say?

She's not having screen time before bed, is she?  That has been shown to keep kids awake because it wires their brains.