Sleep Disorder

[SocRocks]

difficult child 3 saw a sleep disorder doctor. Here is my question he has never really slept like other kids. I know that part of this is due to seizures. BTY they never found any of medical conditions such as sleep apnea or ect. She said it might but neuromuscular??? He spends most of his sleep in stages 1 and 2.It takes him longer than normal to go into REM sleep. Anyone have any ideas? Is there someone else. We have an appointment. with Neuropsy in June. Even with the .03 of clondine he does not sleep well, even when he wasn't on a stimulant. Melatonin does not do anything or does Valerian root. Is there other docs or something else that I should be looking for? My husband and I are so tired, becuase we have to be up with him. Please help.

 

[buddy]

Does he use the breathing medications or flonase at night? what if he is having an idiosyncratic reaction to a medication???

 

[TeDo]

difficult child 1 had real sleep issues caused by one of his medications, I think it was Prozac. He fell asleep okay, slept for 2-3 hours but then woke up in the middle of the night for 2-3 hours then awake early in the morning besides. It could be one of the medications causing the sleep problems. medications given for sleep are "usually" given to help people fall asleep, not keep them asleep. The person that did the sleep study didn't have any ideas for you on where to go? That sounds odd to me.

 

[DammitJanet]

I have horrible insomnia...hence the fact that I am up right now and havent even been to sleep all night. I have to use some form of sleep medication at night or I simply do not sleep. Normally my ambien works but for some reason something is over riding that right now and I am going to have a talk with my psychiatrist today about it.

Your son is very young and I doubt they will give you something like ambien for him but there are things like trazadone or even benedryl. Your doctor can talk to you about things like this.

 

[SocRocks]

He has been like this since he was born. He never slept all night before any medications, he was put on the clodine before the adhd medications. The sleep disorder doctor was no help, neither is the pediatrician doctor, or the neuro. Even without medications he would not fall sleep until about 1am-2am, then he would wake up between 5am-6am. So this is not a medication issue. He can not use benedryl because of his other medications, and even if we did it just makes him more hyper, one time he was sick with a chest infection they gave him cough syrup with codeine in it OM, that was even worse. He does use an inhaler at night, I am just not sure if he is breathing in all the medications. He is also on flonase.

 

[InsaneCdn]

I'm assuming you've already done all of the "obvious" things...
- sensory issues
- super-regular bedtime routine
- NO screen-time within 2 hours of bed
- white noise machine (to block out other sounds - esp. if the child is sensitive to sound, OR has really good hearing)
- if he's restless - get the blankets on the kid and not on the bed (warm fleece jammies, rather than heavy blanket...) - ours used to loose the blankets, then get cold and couldn't get back to sleep
- does he fall out of bed? if so, consider taking away the bed frame, and putting the mattress on the floor - some kids don't let themselves sleep soundly for fear of falling out of bed
- does he get a snack before bedtime? if so, is it a sleep-incuding snack (like a glass of milk, any temperature)?