8 yr old DS having trouble getting off to sleep??

[Becky99]

My DS has recently had a lot of trouble getting off to sleep at night. We have a good well established bedtime routine, he gets a solid 10 hours a night but dropping off is causing him real problems. He gets wound up, tearful, hot & bothered. He assures me he's not worried about anything. Any suggestions or similar experiences?

Maybe try asking him in a different way - not, 'are you worried' but 'are you thinking about anything in particular'. Sometimes the different question just unlocks the conversation, frees them up to say things; or sometimes they aren't worried at all but their mind is just buzzing with new stuff that they can't switch off. Can you try talking through the day, just to shelve it all for the night? Also, we have a tradition of no more than 20-30 mins lying in the dark before coming down/calling and then, depending on circumstances, that's maybe the time to turn the light on and read for a bit. I also promise I'll be back after 10-15 minutes 'to check'. All of this stops them lying in the dark fretting about not being able to sleep and getting more and more wound up but allows them time to wind down gently on their own if they can. HTH...

My DD used to be exactly the same (2-3 hours to get to sleep some nights) and we thought that reading at bedtime/listening to audio books would be a good way of winding her down. WRONG!

According to DD's teacher this was just stimulating her mind more. So i bought this based on customer reviews. I have to say that i'm quite a cynical person but i decided to give it a go.

I'm pleased to say we haven't looked back. There are 4 short (15mins) meditations on the cd and my DD hasn't heard the end of any them yet!

It has really worked for us and i have my lovely sweet tempered daughter back not the highly strung demon who was hysterically crying over the smallest thing (she's never been great when sleep deprived!).

Thanks a lot.:)

My dd (10) used to be like this. She just had lots of thoughts going around in her head and couldn't switch off. She wasn't worrying as such but was thinking of things she needed to remember for school or things she wanted to tell or ask me. She now has a notebook next to her bed so she can write down anything she's thinking about for the next day. We then check it each morning. It's helped her loads.