Sleep disturbances and difficulties are pretty common. My oldest daughter, now 19 and soon to be 20 slept ok at nite as a baby, but her "nite" was 1 am till 6 am. Before she was a month old, she gave up naps entirely, if she dozed so much as 5 mins dureing her day, she would NOT sleep at nite. By the time she was 2, she did not sleep more than 3 hours a nite, and nope, no naps. Again, if she napped even simply 5 minutes, she could not sleep at nite. I myself always always worked evenings and nite shifts, went to nite classes for college whenever it was ppossible. My easy child daughter is a "day person" but the oldest is more a nite person, no matter in psychiatric hospital, anywhere, she always was one who did her sleep later than normal, and eventually she also emerged as not being on a typical 24 hour body cycle, either. Im not sure but I think that is pretty rare....but instead of her body adhereing to a 24 hour cycle like most people, hers is more of a 36-48 hour cycle. Once she wakes from her "nite" sleep- she naturally functions far beyond most peoples 16-20 hours and usually goes at least 24 hours and often 36 hours and then she will sleep for 5-8 hours. This is a very difficult thing to adjust to in a family. Marg has spoken some of ways, I think to help keep people on a better cycle.or maybe she spoke of the importance of it.......maybe she will post here.
I myself normally only sleep 3-5 hours a nite.....and have been that way most of my life. and typically I go to sleep in wee hours. I do my best work in evenings.
CHildren CAN have insomnia. They can also have mania or hypomania.....google those to learn more about them.
We here have not ever tried melatonin, but I know a lot of people on this site have. When my kids were small, many people used benadryl per doctor.....I am not sure if docs suggest that much anymore, - and I wonder if it is becuz while for a few people it might help- for a LOT of kids instead of helping them sleep- it activates them worse. (my kids get activated on it) I also know a couple people who give their child a small cup of coffee, (ironically) before bed. For a few kids it seems to help.
For my difficult child.....we had a long bedtime routine. It actually began immediately after school. DInner.....a bath.....and then things were the same every single nite, from dinner on....a warm bath...often with lavender....low lighting.....quiet sounds, no TV....(altho in my home due to multiple diagnosis in multiple family members, this fell by wayside-husband has to have strong lites and loud sound 24-7- so the rest of us use "white noise") gentle hairbrushing, snugletime...the lighting thruout the house was dimmed along the same schedule as the sunlight outside dimmed. Baths were down mostly laying back quietly.
Mornings were a nitemare here....and our psychiatrist eventually wrote a long term note demanding my difficult child have a later start to her school day after observing her in psychiatric hospital. Even then mornings were horrible.
My son, on the other hand, had a different problem with sleep etc. Originally a doctor put him on ADD medications..rialin, concerta etc. We quickly found out that even the smallest dose at 5 am held on to him, makeing him unable to sleeep AT ALL or EAT......from 5 am until it wore off AFTER midnite. AT midnite on the nose, poor kid would collapse....exhausted, but he would cry in is sleep and wake often, even tho he was ex hausted.....becuz since he could not eat all day, he was ravenous. But he was also too tired to stay awake to eat. and too hungry to sleep.
If you read other posts here, and check archives etc.....a LOT of kids here were originally diagnosis'ed one thing, and had diagnosis changed over time. some of the kids had diagnosis changed many times over the years. IIt has seemed to me for a long time that most of the kids begin with a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, progress to add on anxiety, depression etc..progress to mood disorder and or bipolar.....and then even go on to aspie, autism spectrum etc. It also seems the medications had a progression that was pretty standard, too--altho they medications have changed a lot since my now 19 began us on this path. But at the time, kids began with ritalin (or concerta or adderall) and then got antidepressants added in, and then mood stabilizers, and maybe antianxiety medications, and then antipsychotics.......
If you read many threads here, you will find a wide variety of diagnosis'es and medication coctails that work for some kids really well.....you will find some kids that are still searching for a successful medication coctail to help them....you will find other parents who tried all kinds of different things, some worked great, some made things worse.....mostly, I think, in my opinion you will find there is no one size fits all answer about medications or how to handle your chld.....but you will find all kinds of things you COULD try...and some might work for your child. What else you will hopefully find is people to be there for you-letting you know while this is a hard life to have a difficult child.....there are people who have been thru similar. and we can offer moral support.
Yes, children can have insomnia. And it stinks becuz yes, schools need to have rules and guidelines etc.....and some kids do truly have a terribly difficult time conforming to the schedule. And then even if you can get such a tired child TO school- they are so tired, so sleepy- it often creates more problems at school, becuz any person who is sleep deprived has a shorter temper, is more irritable, and a sleepy child is also not able to learn, ANYWAY. and is very likely to exhibit more behavior difficulties.
SOmething else you might look up is long term sleep deprivation. it can make people psychotic.
SO the sleep difficulties are something else to talk to doctor in length about. Maybe a therapist can work with self relaxation techniques for your child to try?
does your child wake after she has been asleep for a little while? Is her bed, blankets, lighting, temperature of room etc in her room conducive to sleep?
