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Parenting

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ADHD and early wake up?

5 replies

Liljomum · 21/05/2022 07:50

Hi Everyone, my 9 year old DS has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and I wanted to know if early rising can be a symptom? He does show the common signs of ADHD, such as impulsive behaviour, lack of concentration etc, but one thing I need advice on is he wakes up really early on his days off. He has always struggled falling asleep and one thing that helped was introducing a drawn out early bedtime routine. In the week he comes off all consoles an hour or so before bedtime, he might watch a bit of telly though, then he goes up to shower and brush his teeth before reading in bed for about 20 minutes. On his days off we have tried not changing anything, so sticking to the routine, but he wakes up about 5.30/6ish. He tends to wake up about 7/8ish on a school day, and sometimes we have to wake him up. We have tried on occasion to push back his bed time at the weekend and allow him extra time to play but we have found he still wakes up about 5.30/6 or even earlier. It’s the same if we have a late night due to parties or weddings. He has a younger brother who is a brilliant sleeper, he can fall asleep quickly in comparison and would happily lie in if he had a late night. He also wakes up in a happy mood. The problem I have, other than being tired myself or him waking up his younger brother, is my 9 year old DS is grumpy and in low mood for the entire day. On Saturdays he has football matches as he absolutely loves football but because he’s not had a good sleep he has no energy and becomes really emotional. Going out for days out is hard too as he doesn’t listen as well and throws emotional teenage like tantrums. I need to stress in the week he tends to sleep well but is still very tired, almost like he’s recovering from the weekend. I want to know if it’s a symptom of ADHD or is this just a typical 9 year old? Any advice would be welcomed 😊

OP posts:
Flopisfatteningbingforchristmas · 21/05/2022 08:55

Does he wake up early on Saturday and Sunday morning or just Sunday mornings?

MrsGhastlyCrumb · 21/05/2022 09:16

My 6 year old has ADHD and has always been the same- plus waking in the early hours (think 1am) and being up all night. So, yes- this sounds familiar. Recently she has become very enthused about reading, luckily, so if she wakes in the night she gets books to read, which help. She has even managed to go back to sleep that way, which is new. After about 5, though, she's not going to sleep again so if we need more sleep she gets her iPad, I'm afraid.

MrsGhastlyCrumb · 21/05/2022 09:18

Ah, sorry. I speed read your OP, which in this case clearly meant zero reading comprehension on my part. It's strange about the weekend/week day split. My other child has ASD and is more like that.

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Liljomum · 21/05/2022 16:02

It’s both Saturday and Sunday but it happens on half terms too. I wondered if school is mentally exhausting for him so that’s why he sleeps in during the week.

OP posts:
TooManyPJs · 21/05/2022 16:29

ADHD is associated with a variety of sleep issues.

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