Anybody else with a teenager with delayed sleep disorder?

[Somewhereovertheroad]

Dd2 (13) has delayed sleep disorder. Her sleep routine is completely messed up. It's ruining family life. She is really grumpy and irritated most of the time and she can't do her sports etc

I really need help and advice

Have you tried melatonin?

I don’t have a teenager with it but I have it.

Honestly it’s a nightmare and I live in constant fear of missing something or waking up late and family criticising me because I can’t just jump up like a regular person.

Just please don’t blame her or get mad at her because it’s reallt hard especially when you’re knackered and no one understands why.

Melatonin can help, I stock up when we’re in France but I know it can be prescribed.

Don’t use black out blinds and if she can keep her curtains open then even better, the dark makes it much harder to wake up and you end up sleeping even longer with a much harder time waking up properly.

My routine for a good nights sleep is fresh sheets and covers, a shower before bed, multiple alarms set and trying to force myself to sleep early, sometimes this means staying up a night at the weekend to get things back in to a normal rythym. It never lasts though and it all has to be done all over again.

Wow thanks. I really thought I was the only one going through this.

Yes she is on Melatonin 8mg but refuses to take it a lot of the time because she has googled it and decided the dose is too high.

I know I shouldn't get mad at her but it's soooo frustrating.

She had a summer camp this morning that I have paid for but she couldn't get up. I'm upset for her and at the same time with her because she doesn't seem capable of trying to keep in routine to manage it.

I’m an adult and I take 1.9mg and it works well for me a lot of the time! You should encourage her to try the lower dose if it will get her in to a routine of taking it.

My parent would literally drag covers off me and I just couldn’t wake up, I genuinely think your daughter will be feeling guilty about all of the things she misses too! Sometimes you do end up wrecking plans.

It’s like constant jet lag and hard to correct :(

She got up this morning at 11am and I thought wow this is brilliant but then I had to go out. She has been asleep since I got back at 12:30

She is missing her whole teenage life.

Several years ago, I do have some sleeping problems, sleeping too late or having no sleepiness. Then my friends recommend me to get a body pillow to accompany me. I'm also a fan of Pokemon, so I get a Pikachu body pillow, which does change my sleep way. www.coosfly.com/blog/how-a-dakimakura-body-pillow-can-change-your-life-and-sleeping-pattern/. Hope it can help you and have a good sleep.

This is really interesting: DD has been a hideous sleeper since she was about 4, but I have recently googled and found out about delayed sleep phase disorder. It does sound very like her - and yes, we get a lot of irritability and inability to get up. We're actually holidaying in a country that sells melatonin OTC, she's been taking 1mg, and I think she is generally less grumpy in the mornings, and I have booked a doctor's appointment for when we get home.

Can I ask how either of you got a diagnosis? And whether it's worth trying a bigger dose of melatonin right now?

thestudentsnextdoor my Dd was referred to a paediatrician who prescribed the Melatonin after many tests.

Melatonin is a prescription only medicine in the UK and it can only be prescribed by a paediatrician.

sorry to hear you are going through this too.

Oh wow I've never heard of this!

My DS is 13 and sleep is a nightmare with him, he will stay awake until the early hours Cos he's not tired but then needs to sleep when he should be getting up. It makes school mornings an absolute nightmare, he will actually cry in his room until it gets to the point where I can't get him to go to school. He is then grumpy as hell for the entire day. On a weekend and school hols he can be in bed until 1pm.

Heading to google now and see if a GP appt is necessary! Thanks so much for posting about this!

somewhereovertheroad thanks for that. Should I ask the doctor for a sleep clinic, or a paediatrician, do you think? We're trying the melatonin just because we can get it easily here, but I'd like a medical opinion on it soon.

And to you too. It's utterly miserable having to wake them all the time, and know that they are so tired. My DD is a little older than yours and is a bit better at getting herself up for stuff she knows she has to do - although she has had too many mornings off school for my liking. And yes, it has really damaged our family life.

cricketmum84 I hope you get some answers too.

*thestudentnexrdoor”. I was diagnosed as I was referred to the sleep clinic for possible narcolepsy.

And sorry OP, you do miss a lot but you will get there in the end I’m sure.

I'm so glad you started this thread op, as I had never heard of this, but I'm certain my 15 year old has this.

I have touched on this sleep subject with a few professionals we have been seeing lately because ds is struggling and a lot of this seems to come back to his sleeping, he can never sleep at night, it takes him hours to fall to sleep, he lays in the dark trying and never can before the early hours of the morning, this in turn has made it so so hard getting him up in the mornings for school, we wake him and he answer us, even speaks to us and then he just can't get up, it's literally so draining trying to get him up,it causes so much stress in the mornings in our household and really has affected his performance in school and lack of concentration, he's highly intelligent but I believe he just can't focus as he's shattered.
Also when he eventually does get up, if he's late or was meant to be somewhere and we say we woke you up about 10 times and you spoke to us, he can't even remember speaking with us so he obviously isn't awake.

We have only tried herbal sleep aid and also meditation to try to help but nothing is working.

One professional is just about to write to the gp about helping with his sleep, so hopefully we get somewhere.

How do they diagnose this? I'm going to mention this to the gp.

My ds has been like this for many years, I used the term "night owl" a lot and now I feel guilty because I think it must be hell trying to function on such little sleep.

Morningcuppa

we wake him and he answer us, even speaks to us and then he just can't get up, it's literally so draining trying to get him up,it causes so much stress in the mornings in our household and really has affected his performance in school and lack of concentration, highly intelligent

^^ This all of it is exactly Dd2. She wakes up talks to us asks for a drink of water and you bring it round and then she says what you bringing me that for? as if you hadn't just been talking to her a minute ago. Her grades plummeted and the school were never off the phone about her behaviour and then she would come home and be asleep within 10 minutes.

Somewhereovertheroad - we have had the same with the school, I'm definitely going to speak to the gp and ask about this, I had never heard of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the GP hasn't heard of it either. It definitely seems to be a Paediatrician diagnosis.

It's three o'clock in the morning and she can't sleep. She has decided to tidy her room including putting on a wash. I need to get up in four hours. Screaming silently into pillow.

Somewhereovertheroad - I didn't realise that about the Gp, does you dd keep you awake? Our ds used to as he used to do things like tidy his room etc but as he's got older I have found he does try to sleep, he says he can lay there in the dark trying to sleep for hours. Nothing more frustrating than trying to sleep when you want to.

I've just tried to wake mine up, sat on his bed and had a conversation with him, now left the room and he's not got up yet, I'm going to ask him when he wakes up if he remembers me talking with him.

somwhereovertheroad and MorningCuppa - I feel your pain. The pottering about late at night, having to wake them multiple times to have a hope of getting them up, the irritability, the missed oportunities...

I have had to insist that DD doesn't do things that make it worse, so screens off at a reasonable hour, only use your bed for sleeping in, and even if you are awake, it is better to be resting in bed than be up and about. These only make a small bit of difference but it is about good sleep hygiene. I'm hoping to get referred to a sleep clinic, who might say these things are rubbish, but at least it means her nighttimes aren't utterly chaotic.

Dd is away on camp she is due back tomorrow night. She left on Monday morning and I had asked her to make sure she let me know how she was getting on but No, not one single text

Somewhereovertheroad - sounds entirely typical. My theory is that no news is good news because they are on the phone quick enough if something has gone wrong.

Took DD to the GP and she is being referred to a sleep clinic. Any tips on how to approach it when the appointment comes though? Is it worth turning up with a sleep diary?

Cancellation at the sleep clinic, so we had an appointment today - and yes, it is delayed sleep phase disorder. DD seems pretty positive about trying their treatment, so I feel quite relieved. The melatonin hasn't done much - apparently her brain is just overriding it.

Now six weeks wait for the sleep watch, two weeks of data gathering, and then we can start treatment.

@thestudentsnextdoor would love to hear more about the treatment. Dd has been prescribed Melatonin. It's not working. She is off school today. School have never heard of delayed sleep disorder and are not sympathetic.

I also have a younger Ds who is a school refuser. I really need some support. No idea where to get it.

Today Dd has important year 9 exams. She can't get up.

I really hate what this is doing to our lives.

Just bumping this to see how everyone else is getting on.