13 year old insomnia

[MrsM74]

my Son has been struggling to sleep particularly in the school holidays for a while now. Often not falling asleep until 2am despite really good nighttime routine no screens etc. last night he literally did not sleep at all!! Ended up very distressed by 4am so I just got up with him and we watched films. Wasn’t sure what else to do! I normally encourage him to read or do a word search book but he’d been doing that from midnight. He drifted off for 20 minutes that’s all. He looks terrible! I’ve spoken to the GP who just sent me nhs guidance for sleep hygiene which were just common sense really. Anyone else experienced this?

Talk to GP about melatonine or just try it out.

What time is he getting up at?

I make sure he is up by 8:30 so only an hour later than a school day. I might try getting him up at the normal weekday time to see if that makes a difference.

Myself and my son (ASD, age 11) suffer terribly with sleep issues. Both of us love sleep but can't do it easily. He's been prescribed melatonin numerous times but it never seems to help him much tbh. I personally take a drowsy anti-histamine daily (I also have a dust mite allergy so kills two birds with one stone) and have started to give him one on the evenings he's struggling the most. They usually help drop him off within an hour or so. Maybe worth a try?

I'm not sure the GP will prescribe melatonin. I'm on 6mg melatonin prescribed by my psychiatrist. I was previously prescribed promethazine ( along with my other mental health drugs)
You could try him on promethazine as you can get that over the counter from most pharmacies.
Edit : it's an antihistamine
Id also try the 10mg first rather than the 25mg