insomnia in 10 year old

[ErnestTheBavarian]

Me again with yet another thread about ds

We have a bit of a vicious circle, wonder if anyone has tips on how to crack it?

He is having 'bad thoughts', nightmares etc etc. He is sleeping badly.

If he goes to bed early, he lies for hours in the darkness thinking 'bad thoughts' and gets scared, frightened, depressed.

If he goes to bed late he's exhausted which makes him more miserable and depressed.

If he is physically exhausted he can drop off quite quickly.

tiring him out, especially when it's dark so early so not going out to play, and relatively little time on a evening anyway with howmeowrk, dinner etc, sorry, tiring him out seems to be the key, but how?

ANyone suggest eg a wii game that is fun, not too competative, but exhausting? Or any other ideas that I can easily do, preferably at home as have 3 other dc? He doesn't like football, and hasn't wanted to join any other sport club, he's more of a reader and (too much of a ) thinker.

Any other ideas? How do you deal with insomnia in children?

Thanks for any suggestions

Hi sorry to hear about poor ds
Have you thought about audio books?
After I moved in with DH (then DP) I found I couldn't read myself to sleep until the book dropped and I fell asleep. I then suffered from insomnia during stressful periods at work and would lie awake still processing bits of info from the day and remembering things I hadn't done.

Then I started listening to audio books which took away the "badthoughts" because you get involved in the story.
Nothing too exciting that you lie there on the edge of your seat/bed but something gentle
Might be worth a go
There's a type of headphone called a pillowtalk you can buy that goes under the pillow so you're not wearing headphones and running the risk of strangling yourself in the cord!
HTH

DD2 (nearly 10) is a big thinker too and she often has trouble dropping off.

She is insanely active though and despite physical tiredness she won't go to sleep. She finds being on her own in a quiet room quite stressful I think, so looks for entertainment instead.

I got her some homeopathic pills to suck before bed which seem to help a bit with calming her mind.

But I sympathise. It's really frustrating.

I am sorry to hear that your DS is having problems. My DD1 has often had insomnia. She has recently had problems sleeping because she has book plots going around her head!

I now encourage her to get out of bed and write what is disturbing her down and then to put on an audio book in an attempt to 'wipe her thoughts out'. She mostly chooses ones that she knows as she says that she doesn't have to concentrate on them and that is relaxing. She also enjoys The Beatles.

DD is very active, but we now have Wii Fit Plus for days when there is nothing on after school and the weather is awful. She loves the Wii and gets extremely hot and sweaty. I limit the time she plays and also make sure that we turn it off a good hour or so before she goes to bed.

Hi, thanks for ideas so far. I've encouraged him in the past to get up and try to jot down thoughts or draw picture or whatever, but doesn't seem to have helped. He loves reading. Audio book interesting idea that I've not thought of - have ordered the pillow headphones - never heard of such a thing before, thanks!

We have a wii but not wii fit. It is quite expensive isn't it? Are there kid friendly games (or whatever - thick emoticon) with it, am prepared to get if it will help. Would also be useful for ds2 who does not suffer from insomnia, but he has adhd, and always plenty of extra energy to burn off! Or are there equally good and tiring wii games that I don't need to buy a wii fit for do you know?

Dd2 (aged 10) suffers on and off from insomnia, we found some "sleep spray" in Boots like this - whether it actually worked or whether it just had a psychological effect, I don't know (although we forgot it once when dd slept over at my sisters, and some lavender picked from their bush and put under her pillow worked just as well).

However, of course either kind may be a bit "girly" for your ds.

We've just got a Wii fit - our DD is 5 and loves it - would def ok for a 10YO.

You have my sympathy as I've always been prone to this kind of thing and had lots of drama with DD last night along the same lines.

Audio books have worked for her, and we tried classical music last night which she liked too (or a chillout CD?)

Don't know if it's worth looking into aromatherapy - I know it's helped me in the past but not sure what you could use for a child. Would think lavender would be ok or some kind of pillow spray (think Boots do one called 'Sleep).