The reasons why I don't think it's the patch are 1) He takes it off several hours before bed and it has generally only taken about an hour or two to clear his system. 2) He never had a problem falling asleep before, even when he was on the patch in the pre-Depakote days AND his Daytrana dosage is just 10mg (whereas he was on 40mg before). And 3), like Mattsmum's experience, he was a bit drowsy the first few weeks on Depakote, but since going up to 750mg, he's had the insomnia issue. (I've read that between 1% and 5% of the population will have this problem with it). Last night, he was up until after 1:00am and he'd been up since 8am, had a full day at summer camp plus 90 minutes of soccer practice!
Since first posting this, our psychiatrist said to try giving it to him earlier in the evening, just after dinner. So I'm giving that a try tonight. Plus, he didn't get the patch today since he's home with a badly sprained ankle from soccer practice last night :frown: We'll see what the night brings...
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'll keep you posted :smile: