Starting melatonin for DD with autism

[Wotsitsarecheesy]

Has anyone's DC with autism tried melatonin to help disturbed sleep?

DD (14) has always struggled with lack of sleep and we finally went to the GP, who was happy to try her on melatonin. She took the first tablet last night, and then slept for well over 11 hours solid. After that she was incredibly difficult to wake (I'd wake her then she instantly fell to sleep again) resulting in her being an hour late for school.

Is this normal when people start taking melatonin? I am intending that she keep trying it to see how she settles into using it, but just wanted to see how it compares with others using it for the first time.

Thank you

Not autistic but have recently started taking melatonin to try and cure very disturbed sleep pattern. What dosage is your dd taking? Mine are 10mg tablets and I find half (so 5mg) is enough to help me sleep. So one possibility would be to try her on a lower dose.

However, if she's been chronically short of sleep for a while then she may need a few good nights to help her catch up.

My DS (17) has recently started taking melatonin again after a gap of several years. He hasn't had the experience you describe. If anything it's easier to wake him up as he hasn't been awake for most of the night.

@Wotsitsarecheesy, May I check, was the GP able to prescribe melatonin? I thought only paediatricians could?

My son is 14. He is 60kg and only needs 2mg Circadian . Check the dose

Starting dose should be 2mg. BNF says can be started for autism by GP but needs specialist supervision for other groups of childhood insomnia. So this might be the confusion.
I have autism and took it regularly for a while but found I needed ever increasing doses to gain any effect. As has been said if she has found something that is meaning she does sleep after a prolonged period of not doing so however, it is likely that she will have an element of playing catch up for a while.