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Behaviour/development

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ADHD and early rising

3 replies

Nosleepclub13 · 23/08/2024 14:29

Hi, my DS is 5 and we are concerned that he has ADHD. We've been advised that he can't be assessed until he's 7 so we're just trying to deal with the behaviour as best as can.

One issue we are really struggling with is his sleep. Putting him to bed takes well over an hour. He will get in/out of bed over and over again, cry his bed is uncomfortable, kicking around in bed, hitting his arms around, tossing and turning, crying that he can't sleep he doesn't know how etc. he's then usually up once in the night, and ready to start the day by about 4:30. We've tried everything we can think of to get him to stay in his room but no luck, and he's waking everyone else up at that time also. We have a younger child too who is really struggling with constantly being woken up early. I just don't know how to get him to sleep longer/stop waking everyone up 😭 he really needs a couple of extra hours sleep as he's really tired by about 3pm but no matter what he just will not do it. Any suggestions would be amazing thank you!

OP posts:
notsochatty · 23/08/2024 20:28

Magnesium supplements have really helped my DD getting to sleep and staying asleep and easing her worries. She hasn't got ADHD as far as we are aware, but a lot of the reviews for kids' magnesium supplements seem to be from parents of children with ADHD so may be worth looking into.

AFlashOfLight · 23/08/2024 22:12

Gosh this sounds very difficult. I haven't been through this myself, but just a thought - when are his mealtimes? Does he eat breakfast when he wakes up, or wait until a normal time for breakfast? I know that when trying to change your sleep-wake cycle (for example to get over jetlag) one of the best ways to do it is switch your mealtimes to the schedule you want, and the sleep follows.

PolaroidPrincess · 25/08/2024 16:14

You have my every sympathy, early rising is tough as is them not settling at night and you have both.

Luckily my early riser was also quite compliant so we taught them to read and said that they couldn't wake us up before a certain time. Left a drink and some books and told them if they woke to look at the books. It did work for us but maybe you've tried that?

I've heard about magnesium helping to and Vitamin D.

Is he getting a session outside around 7 to 8 am? You want him to have the benefit of sunlight at a time you want him to wake naturally. Daylight has also been linked to better sleep at night.

What's his eating in the day like @Nosleepclub13?

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