Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Melatonin - the bad and good

Is she on stimulant meds for the ADHD? DD is a poor sleeper anyway, but on stimulant meds she is worse, even when they wear off hours before bedtime. We have tried melatonin with varying degrees of success (sometimes it seems to help, sometimes it doesn't). The woman in GNC told me it can cause night terrors in kids, which made me wonder if it actually changes the sleep cycles somehow (in a negative way). DD hasn't reported night terrors, but she has reported weird or bad dreams. I found that when we started to give her Intuniv alone or along with the Vyvannse (stimulant) in the morning, she was sleeping much better (after she got past the sedative effect, where she was falling asleep in the middle of the day). It only helps with extended release guanfacine (Intuniv), not short-acting tenex. Of course, intuniv may have it's own list of possible side effects but a bonus may be helping with the ADHD.

blackcat, I don't want to hijack but am sending a PM.

My DD11 has been on it for 2 years now and it has been a godsend. We do 5mg a night which her sleep doctor is okay with, but we also do Iron for her restless leg syndrome. She grew about 8 inches in 4 months after starting the Melatonin and iron. She leveled off for awhile and now is growing again. She is around 5 feet tall right now and growing.
If she doesn't take the melatonin she is up till midnight or later but the nights she takes it she is asleep within a half hour.

This is great! Does anyone have any advise on how much to take? We want to just try a little at first but not sure how much?

Thanks!
Rach

Chiming in very late here, but I know many parents of gifted kids deal with sleep problems, so others might be searching...
I was advised by several doctors to try very low-dose Melatonin (300 mcg), which some studies have found to be more effective than higher dosages.
My gyn and PCP both advised me to take 300 mcg daily for 30 days, 2 hours before bed, to try to develop a better sleep pattern. My son's ped advised the same. Ds has used it intermittently (with amazing results), while I've used it more regularly.
I had previously tried 3 and 5 mg doses and found that I had very vivid dreams and didn't sleep as well. With the 300 mcg dose (I order on Amazon), I get perfect results.

I've heard this too, which is why we've never used it.

My daughter has issues falling asleep - she will read or draw for hours. It's better during the school year because she's forced to wake up earlier, but during the summer she almost switches completely to a "graveyard shift" unless I'm proactive about waking her up in the mornings. So that's what I do... I wake her up early.

Anyway... no melatonin in this house.

Same here - unless I wake up DD10 at a reasonable hour, she'll happily sleep until 10 am and then not go to sleep until midnight (or later). Even waking her at around 7 or 7:30 am, in the summer she won't fall asleep until after 11 pm.

But once she's asleep, she's usually fine. If anyone has other suggestions for moving bedtimes in a more normal direction - I'd love to hear it!

For the summer, I've given up on getting DS7 to sleep at a reasonable (9:00-ish) hour. Even if we get him up early, he can't get to sleep at night until 10:30 or 11:00. A few days of that, and we have a cranky guy on our hands.

We let him read for a while, but then eventually turn out the lights and tuck him in. Even then, he just lays there, staring at the ceiling, and will occasionally call and ask me to give him something to "dream about" - aka - something to hold his thoughts in a happy place until he falls asleep. I feel so badly for him, because he wants to go to sleep.

We did a couple trial doses of melatonin (in the form of a small cup of the drink NeuroSleep). It certainly was magical in its effect! So we'll keep that in our pocket. But we're trying to avoid the every night thing just because I'm jumpy about the idea. We already have him "addicted" to white noise ...

Suggestion for moving bedtime: As the ultimate cheat - for the week before school starts, I'm taking him from California (Pacific coast time) to Texas (central) to see grandparents. We'll get home on Sunday and school starts on Tuesday. I'm hoping he's still on Central time when school starts, so 9:00 will feel like 11:00! So pathetic, but I really did plan the schedule that way.

Side note - his Dad can't get to sleep at night either and routinely stays up to 3am. So I'm not thinking this problem is going away any time soon ....

Wow - that sounds like it might work - for a while at least.

Unfortunately, no such option here (in the Eastern time zone) unless we go to Europe and back. I do get a bit of a break when Daylight savings ends...

You can fake it at home. The key is light. If you have the cash, you can get alarm clocks that slowly light the room before they go off, to mimic sunrise. In summer, or in certain latitudes, you can just have ineffective curtains. Make sure the room is dark during the night, but bright from sunrise. Make sure the house is dim and no screen time before bed.