8 year old can't get to sleep

[Jayney2]

Recently my 8 year old cannot get to sleep. She's never had an issue before. She lies in bed and keeps coming out to say she can't get to sleep - this goes on and on and on.
We've tried later bedtime, no screens for 2 hours before, bath before bed, calming music... I'm really at my wits end! It's getting to the point that I can't go to bed as she's still awake and getting herself worked up.

Does anyone have any advice?

Guided relaxation may help.

We had this for a while. She reads her own book before bed now with a nightlight. She reads for around 20-30 mins. Its not perfect but definitely asleep at a much better time now.

Let her read her book? I used to have insomnia at that age - read somewhere that only bright children get insomnia !

Black out curtains and listen to some mindfulness meditations (lots of apps let her pick one where she finds the voice relaxing)

I had insomnia at that age as did my dd. Let her read, or put on (talking) podcasts, ideally something not too animated eg I listen to factual ones like science or history (obviously age appropriate ones for a child). Homeschool histories might be a starting point, they were made for adults then edited for children to make sure they were appropriate

My DD went through this at a very similar age. We ended up going back to using white noise - something we used a lot when she was tiny. This progressed onto whale sounds. It seemed to be a phase that has now passed (thankfully!)... She no longer needs the sounds to get to sleep. I think it lasted a couple of months in total. I have a vague recollection I read somewhere that this is common at this age - possibly something to do with some sort of neurological leap/hormonal change (or I could have just dreamt this 😂).

My DD really suffers with this too. We let her listen to audiobooks and podcasts and I've bought her a special clock that has a sunset and sunrise setting which really seems to help.

The main thing that helps though is taking the pressure out of the situation. If she is trying desperately to get to sleep the stress of that will be stopping her from falling asleep and then she's stuck in a cycle. I tell my DD it doesn't matter when she falls asleep, she's never ever not fallen asleep at all, it will happen eventually and just not not worry about it. I also tell her how amazing she is at coping with being tired the next day and so she doesn't need to worry about that either.

Can't she just lie in bed and read or listen to an audiobook?

Fascinating this seems to be a thing.

my daughter is 8 and for the past week it’s been close to 10pm before she is actually asleep. She just reads but I’m worried she isn’t getting enough rest.

Ds had exactly this at age 8! Interesting that it seems to be a thing for so many. Like others the solution was to let him have 10-20 minutes to read his book with the light on then he seemed a lot happier to settle himself down. For ds it was a way to focus all his thoughts on something else as I think his mind was still going fullspeed when his body was tired.

I was like that younger and older than your daughter. It wasn't a big deal, I used to read until I fell asleep, really loved reading and devoured books. Later on I would listen to the radio (after I heard my mum and dad come up to bed I'd have the radio on very, very quietly under the bedclothes, hee hee).

Google adrenarche - it's a hormonal thing that starts around this age.

As pp says, they definitely get a hormonal surge around that age which often impacts sleep. Often they ideally need more sleep, which means they are trying to get to sleep overtired when going to bed as normal - and it can be harder to get to sleep when overtired. When it hit our DD, there was a clear change in all of her behaviour - “like a mini teenager” - we found getting our DD to bed an hour earlier and letting her read worked most nights till she settled into the changes.

im 8 I can’t sleep !!!