you posted a while ago, so I don't know if you guys have found something helpful yet, but I decided to still post because I can so relate to your son. I have had significant problems with insomnia since childhood, but from age 19 to 33 I probably didn't see a night of sleep > 4-5 hours if I was able to sleep at all. Of course many things factored in to these problems. I too had very little luck in finding medication to be helpful. I have tried probably all of the sleep aides available but found relief with only one. Even when useing medication there are certain environmental factors I have to have in place or it's all a bust. I must have the lights in my house off or dimm before 9 pm. If the bright light or excessive noise goes on too late (like 9:45) I gennerally can't fall asleep before 1 am. I can be doing something at that time, but it can't involve physical activity (for me , I'm sure not for a teen that usually means any type of cleaning or laundry) I also can't see any bright light at night. We need a dim night light in the bathroom. When my kids were babies, I had a 25 watt blue light bulb in my room for nursing. I also was unable to even sit up during their care or I was up for the day, so my husband had a role in every feeding. I also had difficulty waking up in the morning during the times when I took Geodon or seroquil. my psychiatrist said that seroquil typicall causes that effect.
On another hand my teen had severe sleep issues ranging from barely sleeping to sleeping 18 hours a day. For him we did a formal sleep study and he was diagnosis with obstructive sleep apnea. We choose a tonsillectomy, which helped some, but cpap is also an availble treatment that we did not find helpful.
