Nocturnal teen - help!

[Mumofteens4892]

My 17yo has a history of trauma and MH. His sleep is completely upside-down. He’s up until 5am and asleep until lunchtime.

It is completely disabling, he can’t work, go to college, his friends have melted away. He’s constantly tired, doesn’t eat well…etc…etc. He does go out for long walks and bike rides.

He absolutely wont go to the GP or entertain therapy/meds.

Has anyone been through this and found ways around it? Or do I just wait for this very depressing “phase” to pass? He’s been like this for about 1.5yrs.

If he wants to change, the solution maybe (no expert other than personal experience) to gradually wake him earlier each day to adjust his routine. He will be shattered for a while but it's the only way to adjust his body clock.

So he can go straight in and sleep at 5am but he has to wake at 8am and keep himself busy to stay awake till the evening or he does it gradually 5am sleep but he's woke up two hours earlier than normal for a few days till eventually he falls asleep at 3am then rinse and repeat xx

Hopefully once he's on a normal schedule other things will start to settle such as eating and socialising etc.

My Dd is ADHD and this is a common pattern with this diagnosis.

We try and wake a bit earlier each week.

He has said he wants to try college, so maybe we’ll try that and see if it motivates him to get up. I am not feeling hopeful but it is worth a shot!

My ADHD teen is like this and I try so hard to keep him in a routine but it all goes out the window in the holidays. I have a midday cut off that I drag him out of bed at.