Sleepy Time

Our family is full of abnormal sleepers. As a child, I remember my dad being up all hours of the night, or he would be up at 4 in the morning doing paperwork. My mom always had insomnia and still does to this day.

I used to sleep pretty well until the pressures of adulthood started and my anxiety began to skyrocket. Then I found I could not sleep because my racing thoughts were impeding my sleep. Before my husband was diagnosed with depression, he too would be up in the middle of the night watching T.V., or would decided at 3 in the morning to go fishing. After he started anti depressants this seemed to resolve itself and he now sleeps.

So, it is not a far family stretch at all to say that my kids don't sleep well. Carson has never been a great sleeper since day one. There were always those mom's who would brag that their 6 month old was sleeping through the night. We tried every type of bed time routine and sleep schedule with no success. At 4 years old he finally slept through the night, hallelujah !!! But then his sister was an infant and up every two hours like clock work.

Settling down at night is very rough for Carson and was increasingly so the last year. He would toss and turn in bed, move to the floor, then back to bed. He would lay down at 8 at night but was usually not asleep until after 10. At his last doctors appointment, I voiced my concern of his irritability. She asked about other possible side effects of his ADHD medication, his daily schedule and sleep patterns. After discussing sleep, the doctor suggested trying the medication Clonodine at night to help with the night time restlessness. Wow! has that done wonders! It is not two hours of tossing and turning in bed, trying 20 million positions trying to get comfortable, all to fall asleep and wake up multiple times a night.

Carson is sleeping better through the night now and I can tell in his disposition that he is getting better quality sleep.

I am be no means anti medication, nor am I 100% medicate everybody for everything, but I tried my whole therapist arsenal of sleep techniques, and it was not working. How do you teach a child to sleep when it is part of his neurology? All I know at this point is that sleep is making him feel and function better.