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DD 13 was the child that never slept. Contrary to popular ways, neither of my kids take showers or baths near bed time. I take a shower in the morning to wake up and that's what it does for both my kids in the evening. When my kids miss naps I use showers or baths to give me that extra nudge I need to make it through. For DD13 they are great study breaks..she returns refreshed.

With DD13 we instigated an evening discussion of one thing that made u sad today and one thing that made u happy. This was to help her learn that the emotions can change significantly. It gave her insight on a meta level when she felt consumed by the individual feelings. This to shall pass... It seemed to help but who knows maybe it was just time.

We used to turn off all the lights in the bedrooms and go out in the barely-lit hallway and read aloud from a chapter book. Both children could hear the story. Worked well at our house. We actually did it a few times at sleepover parties we were hosting and...wonder of wonders...all the children fell asleep!


lol about the "calming bath" before bedtime. Anytime we tried that, they'd be running laps around the house.

Well I would call last night a success. He didn't stay in his bed but he didn't wake anyone by coming down the hall. He must have been very quiet and fallen back to sleep right away.

My son was five and in kindergarten when his dad was diagnosed with cancer. He thought it meant death but we told him the doctors would do surgery to remove it. This was about six months after his grandmother, who lived next door to us, had surgery complications that left her with brain damage and needing full time care the rest of her life. My son was worried and had trouble sleeping, but then he always had trouble sleeping. It is very hard to turn your mind off when there is so much to deal with.

He still has trouble sleeping at age 13. He has his own health issues to worry about now. A television in his room helps him fall asleep. I had always heard that a television in the bedroom was a bad thing but we had tried everything else and it does seem to help a little.

Hi,
Your little guy sounds *so* sensitive (and smart!)--hopefully not in line for existential depression later in life (I think this is also discussed by Dabrowski but I am not sure).
FWIW, similar to an earlier poster, I heard a segment on NPR recently about U.S soldiers returning home and a program trying to prevent issues/ PTSD. The basic idea was to have the soldiers at the end of the day think about three things that had been nice about that day--it can be very small things. It apparently helps quite a bit with overall outlook (and I have tried it myself, and it works on me a little). Maybe something along these lines would help.
Best of luck!

First I would like to say that I am so *relieved* that we are not the only ones dealing with sleep issues. Our DD sleep issues played a huge role in finding out that she was profoundly gifted about a month ago. After leaving her very pure montessori pre-K for a traditional private school Kinder she had a harder and harder time falling asleep at night. After a few months in Kinder she was staying awake until 11 some nights. We couldn't figure out how to get this child to sleep after 5 plus years of no sleep issues.

I think it was extreme boredom on so many levels. She was incredibly engaged in her Montessori. She had been able to pick up her materials in the K-2 classroom while still 3 and 4 years old because she had mastered all of the preschool material so quickly. In kinder they had her circling for letter recognition and she is reading at a 4th or 5th grade level and memorizing the material. The dramatic change in environment led to insomnia and depression, which led us to having her assessed. I am so thankful in some ways that it happened somewhat early in her school life.

For the sleep in the meantime we developed a system to help her fall asleep. I agree with everyone about it relying on ROUTINE. For us having time to talk about all the "worries" is really important. We are Catholic, so we taught our daughter to give some of her worries to God. When she had worried about the same thing over and over to a point where she was torturing herself we meditated with her and taught her to "give" them up to God. Every night she reads about a whole book so she needs to be in bed early so she can have at least an hour if not two hours a night to read. Then we use Pandora Meditation station when "Reading Time" is over. Like others, we are only allowed to use the restroom once before there is a consequence. I think with gifted kids, another important thing I am learning is being reasonable and flexible within very strict boundaries is the balance. Its not easy but it works. We tend to be pretty strict but we have found that a flexibility and reasoning pays off as well. No one method works forever.