My son is a night owl and then sleeps in til noon at least lately. Since we homeschool right now, that’s okay. The school work will be waiting. But when he starts back to school in the fall, I’m afraid he is going to have the same problem and have trouble getting up in the a.m. Is there something that we can do to get them to fall asleep earlier? Yes, if he gets up early, he will be tired earlier but he still has a problem shutting his brain off at night to go to sleep. Is this normal for ADD teens? He is going to be starting on Adderall one-a-days soon so he won’t have to take them at school in the fall but we may need to consider giving him something to get his much needed rest at night too. Ideas?
Thank you.
Re: How to get ADD teen to get to sleep at reasonable hour?
I forgot my ‘f’ . Don’t want to be confused for anyone else!
Re: How to get ADD teen to get to sleep at reasonable hour?
I saw in Dr. Amen’s book that he recommends a glass of warm milk with a tsp. of vanilla and a tsp. of sugar. It’s supposed to help release serotonin, so the mind will rest. One of my son’s tried it and liked it….he snoozed quickly, too. Just a thought….
Re: How to get ADD teen to get to sleep at reasonable hour?
My son is so exhausted at the end of the day, that if he watches tv on the coach he falls asleep by 9pm. He fights about going to bed at 9 but once I get him there, he is asleep within 20 minutes. School exhausts him.
Re: How to get ADD teen to get to sleep at reasonable hour?
My twelve year old always had trouble sleeping.This was one of the major symptoms that wound up diagnosing his ADHD. Once on meds,he still had trouble until we gave an additional dose in the afternoon. It seems for him,he needs to be able to attend to sleeping to go to sleep. I have heard of the milk,also turkey is also suppose to release seritonin. Another natural remidy is melatonin. This is not FDA approved for children but since he is older you might check on this too.
Re: How to get ADD teen to get to sleep at reasonable hour?
It’s a natural rhythm for teenagers to stay up late and sleep late. However unnatural it is for them to go to bed earlier, they can train themselves into it over a few weeks. A few weeks before school starts, start waking him up earlier in the morning. A little earlier every day. Talk this over with him and the reasons why. Get him an alarm clock without a snooze button. (maybe get him a summer job that will get up up in the morning)
As he gets up earlier and earlier, he’ll likely get tired earlier and earlier but even if he doesn’t, he’ll still be training himself to wake up earlier. It is normal for ADD people to sometimes have trouble shutting off their brains for sleep. I used to lull my own ADD teenage brain to sleep by watching television and falling asleep with the tv on. (these days there are automatic shut off buttons) Then I switched to reading to get myself sleepy.
Food eaten late at night can help to fall asleep for some people. Never exercise before going to bed - it’s a waker-upper.
Good luck.
My understanding, this is common for teens in general. Could possibly talk to the doc and see what comes up. Some folks’ kids who are on stimulant medicine also take a medicine to help with sleep. Clonidine is the one I see most frequently spoken about.