My 12 year old (Year 7) has been suffering with occasional insomnia for about 6 months now. He gets really distressed when he can’t fall asleep promptly and I don’t really know how to help him. Things we’ve tried:
He has a healthy diet, drinks plenty of water, zero caffeine, lots of time outdoors and exercise. This has always been the case.
For the last month he has been having an earlier bedtime and minimal screen time including at least 90 mins screen free before bed - not made any difference yet.
Previously we’ve tried peaceful music, mindfulness, ‘sleep casts’ with no effect He has tried sleeping in the spare room and sometimes the change of scenery helps.
We’ve tried talking about every little thing that could possibly be on his mind, I’m as sure as can be that he isn’t being bullied or have any major issues like that - he is so desperate for sleep he would definitely tell me. He tries to think of anything that could be bothering him - even brining up ridiculously minor things - but really he is fine and there is nothing to tell. He is tired from the lack of sleep, yawning a lot and complaining of tiredness but really it’s not THAT bad, I’m not actually too worried about that side of it, he doesn’t really struggle to get up for school for instance.
The biggest issue is he gets so upset when he can’t sleep, he is annoyed with himself to the point of calling himself ‘stupid’ and ‘an idiot’ when normally he has great self confidence and belief. I’ve never heard him talking about himself in these negative terms before and it really worries me 😓 I don’t really see how the GP could help but that’s my next step unless anyone has any ideas??