Melatonin...can you give a second dose for night wake ups?

[runikka]

Good evening

Just wanted to ask a question to any melatonin users. We have recently been prescribed, for Daniel, melatonin 2mg every night. We give it to him 1/2 hour before bed and he goes straight off...bliss! However, his nightly wake up of 3am has continued and we wondered whether we could give him a second smaller dose safely.

A HV said off record that you could do so as it is a natural occuring hormone and not medicine as such but we havent got "official" instructions to do so and the paedetrician was stating that it wouldn't cure sleep problems and that we would need to work on other methods for night waking?

Any thoughts

Many thanks
Kirsty
x

I tend not to. Although I will use it in the middle of the night if I haven't given it at bed time.

I have found that giving it too much at bedtime seems to lead to night waking.

personally, i don't give any past 11pm...its not that it would cause any 'hangover' next morning...more that i feel that if thet've had maybe 4 hours sleep....then waking up- then they have gone through a full sleep cycle.

all 3 of mine take melatonin 3mg

like you i give it 30 mins before bed....and on 'anxious days' when they don't settle and have not got off to sleep at all....I do give a second dose.

i think the key issue is the second dose is worth giving if the child settles poorly...and 'night wakers' do not respond so well

When I mentioned ds2 having similar problems, the Paed suggested the slow-release melatonin instead. If your ds is able to swallow capsules (mine won't unfortunately) then it's worth trying.

Many thanks for your replies.

Unfortunately Daniel will not swallow capsules and we are having to crush the tablets so I dont think this helps.

We will leave the second dose and maybe try to get him off to sleep without it so we can at least give him the first dose if need be.

The problem is we have thought about keeping him up later but he asks to go to bed and seems to be desperate to go off but cant.

we have capsules (not slow acting) and before the boys could swallow them we emptied the powder inside each capsule into small drinks.

some powders don't dissolve as well as others.... but could still be better (and easier!!!) than crushing tablets!!!

Penn Pharmaceuticals do a 2.5mg powder filled capsule that dissapears completely...even in water!!!!