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Have any of your tweenage children had insomnia? DD1 is 11, the past 4 nights is struggling to get to sleep. Poor thing came in at 1am crying she couldn't sleep. She doesn't have anything on her mind, so it's not stress related. I'm wondering if its a hormonal thing? I decided last night no iPad through the week jic its screen time related.
Tips/suggestions?
We have issues with DD1 on and off, we've started doing meditation at night, we've got an app on the iPad, the site is called smiling mind.
Thanks for the recommendation. DD has signed up for the app.
She does two sessions a night.
My dd is similar. We have some children's visualisations by Christiane Kerr. She has some on the app store.
I don't know where you live, but during winter, lack of exposure to natural daylight can knock some people's circadian rhythms out of kilter. Getting her outside in the morning & then again in the late afternoon, & keeping evening lights & screens to a minimum will help. Also check she hasn't been consuming extra hidden caffeine/stimulants in the form of chocolate, milo & other drinks.
Good point MD. my dd is not affected by sugar but tiramisu lateish at night always keeps her awake.
MissM how did she go last night?
I went through this. I remember crying and crying because I was so tired but I just could not get to sleep. I think it can be a hormonal thing. I had it from about 11 to mid teens. It would come in bouts. Has she got her AF yet? Is she regular yet? I was never regular and I think that's what triggered it. Obviously my hormones weren't working great.
Things that helped:
A warm bath with lavender (I know it's like reverting back to a baby ;))
My dad would massage my feet. He was the best :). Because I would get so wound up about not sleeping I couldn't get to sleep. My feet being rubbed always calmed me down and eventually I'd sleep.
Also head being rubbed, seemed to relieve tension.
Definitely cut out things like cheese, sugar, caffine before bed. I know it sounds odd but apples always seemed to stimulate my brain too.
Other difficulty sleeping tips:
* Have a tryptophan & carb-rich snack like a banana and a glass of warm milk before bed
* Turn off screens/lights 2 hours before bedtime
* Make sure lights in the sleeping area are dim & warm (yellow) coloured. I recently bought a low-wattage LED globe for my bedside lamp and changed the lightbulbs in the loungeroom from compact fluoro to LED and I cannot believe the difference this has made.
* Sleepiness comes in waves. If you're still awake after 30-45min, get up and do something non-stimulating (low-light) light reading, drawing/journalling, listening to music. And be ready to climb back into bed & turn the light off when the next wave of sleepiness hits.
* Finish all your exercising before dinner time.
* Massaging your own feet, hands, and even temples with a really nice aromatherapy hand cream with rose, chamomile, lavender is very soothing.
* Learn the breathing method where you breathe in for the count of four, then breathe out for the count of six (and pause before breathing in again). This does something to the blood gases that works as a biological relaxer & improves breathing during sleep as well.
* Check that DD is actually comfortable in bed. Maybe her bed-coverings are too warm, maybe the pillow is past its best days, maybe she is a little heavier now and needs a new mattress.
* Don't watch the clock. Sleep will come. The more chilled out you are the quicker it will arrive.
And the weird one: Take an epsom salts bath a couple of hours before bed. The theory is something about the magnesium makes people sleepy. This is one of those weird old tips we've forgotten because we live in a commercial-product saturated world, but all of our Nannas knew about because it works. If you can't manage a whole bath, even a 15 minute foot bath will do it.
Thanks for the tips everyone. Very much Appreciated.
Olive - she was laying in my bed last night & crashed at 7:45 so I left her.
My DD has ADD and struggles to get to sleep. I'm getting a script for melatonin when we go back to paed later this month.
In the meantime I bought some 'Sleep' by Swisse and it is really helping.
She is 11 too (although it's long been an issue).