My 16 yr old daugter is having trouble getting to sleep?

Question

She is a teenage night owl. Unfortunately she has to get up aerly for some school evnets and on other nigths she has to staly late for activities, not to mention the time needed to study and do home work. She says when she trys to go to bed her mind won't stop working. She has tride 3 mg of melotonin, but that hasn't worked. I'm not comfortable going to 6 mg. She is sluggish during the day and has fallen asleep in class a couple of times. She has tried the radio - music, but she ends up singing the songs in her head. I am suggesting either talk radio or am static from teh radio. Has anyone had success with the "ocean sounds"? Help the helpless dad! Thx

Answer 1

First, most teens have a late-to-bed, late-to-rise brain pattern. This is scientifically proven.

I would send your daughter to biofeedback or relaxation classes - yoga, etc. Your school counselor may be able to recommend a physhologist to work with. Some deep breathing, backward counting, and almost literally counting sheep are techniques she might learn.

Stay away from the drugs. There are some great teas on the market with herbal ingredients like chamomile that make you quite sleepy. One is from Celestial called "Sleepy Time".

In addition, visit your local heath food store. Ask about homeopathic pills for nervousness or restlessness. These are all natural, melt under your tongue, and work wonders.

She might try shutting down (or at least transitioning) her brain before she goes to sleep by reading a pleasure book. The ocean sounds seem to be a good idea too.

Answer 2

I think that it would be best if you took her to the doctor. It could just be stress from what she is having. It is most likely normal though. It is great that your daughter is in all of these activities now, it shows she is a well-rounded person who is willing to do different activities. But school comes first, if she can't focus on that pretty good, then it is a problem. I think a lot of things may be overwhelming her, so try to remind her to take it slow with things. When you doing many things at once, you tend to think on what you are going to do and how it is going to get done. It is fine to think about those things and do a lot of fun things in high school, but when you start falling asleep in class and cannot rest at night, it shows they are working themselves too hard. I don't really recommend the medication even though I am not a doctor. It is just her stress level is high and she can change that.

Answer 3

My daughter had the same problem when she was 16 as well.
I took her to the doctor. He said she was being over stimulated and was basically physically and mentally exhausted. So much so that she was past the point of being able to wind down, relax and go to sleep.

He suggested we cut out some of her activities, & put her on a schedule and follow the schedule no matter what. She protested at first but slowly noticed she was able to relax at night and eventually fall to sleep. After a few good night's rest, she was a different kid and didn't mind giving up some of the stresses.

The other thing was my daughter told him that when she laid down at night her mind started racing. She would think about what she had to do the next day, what had happened during that day, projects, etc. He suggested she put a note pad and pencil on her nightstand and when something popped into her head...which was keeping her awake....that she write it down. This practice really worked for her. Try it, it certainly can't hurt.

Answer 4

It sounds like your daughter is too busy or over scheduled, like mine was. With everything she was doing, school, pom, band,tennis, basketball, yearbook and such, when she finally got into bed, her mind wouldn't stop, and she had a hard time winding down. Before you go with the sleep aids, try this: before bed, a cup of warm milk. The chemicals in the milk work much better as a sleep aid when you warm the milk up. You might also look at her activities and see if she is over booked. My daughter cut out the Pom squad, which got her home every night earlier and really lightened her load. She sleeps a lot better now. She also started sleeping with a small fan on, pointed away from her in winter, and it helps keep things from interfering with her unwinding.

Answer 5

Sounds to me she has too much on her plate.

Have her cut down some of her activities, to which will help her stress level ease up. She is going going going and her body needs rest. Able to rest, she has to relax and not constantly be going going going and thinking about it. Help her find the important "must have" activities and have the rest of the activities done later on, such as summer or next year (flip flop activities. This one year and the other next year).

How is her diet going?

Does she eat healthy meals or is she a "grab and go" junk food addict?

Her eating habits also will affect.

How is her social life?

Any negative issues gone on (break up, relationship problems, friends being shady etc).

Sometimes having too much going on, then adding more as trying to rest (radio, music) can also cause her brain to function. Constant stimulation can cause that. Can try the ocean sounds, but her brain needs some rest from stimulation (noise and physical).

As far as homework/study. Discuss with teachers to have some class time set away for her to take at least 10 to 15 mins to study and work on some homework, which will help free up some time after school where not up late. Have her work on it during lunch hour, before and just a lil after school. If she has a lot of homework, discuss with teachers on cutting her back or giving her some time before class ends to start on it.

I did that and most of my teachers were fine with it. Senior year, I even had 2 class periods to fully do this (1 was lunch the other was Prep time for ROTC, as being Company Commander, I had my own period with my other officers as my senior year was very flexible the way I was able to set it up). Then I could command my drill team after school 2 times a week with Physical fitness team 3 times a week. Then have time for my horses and then family and friend time before bed. Roughly 11am (when I have my own time to wind down).

Giving her medication and upping the dose is not good. Risk of over dosage and doesn't solve her sleeping problems, just masks it.

Also, talk to her doctor as well.

Answer 6

My mom and sister suffer from the same thing. Your daughter needs to cut back on some of the things she's doing. At least for a little bit. Just enough time to get relaxed. A lot of it has to do with stress, and lack of certain vitamins.

Two B12 vitamins in pill form every morning, or every night just before she goes to sleep and a calcium tablet (just some calcium put into pill form) should help. It helps my mother and sister to calm down, and it helps me too.

Also you might want to try some all-purpose, or multi-purpose vitamin pills for teens. It's a bunch of viatmins needed for the everyday life of a teen put into pill form. No caffine, and no harmful substances.

Answer 7

Yes, sad to say there has been research done that teenagers do their best on their school work during the night owl hours....make sure your daughter doesn't have no soda or caffine like after 5 pm. or even earlier.
I think ocean sounds would be wonderful to help your daughter to try to relax, calm her self down to rest. It takes awhile for the body to adjust to the new change, try things out and be patient...Good luck.

Answer 8

Let her take 1 Tylenol pm about 1/2 hour before she goes to sleep. If she is sleepy the next day, try taking 1/2 a tablet. If she is trying to stop thinking, get a small fan for her room, if she listens to it running it will stop her from thinking.

Answer 9

She might become dependent if she takes too much sleep medicine, but it might be necessary. Anyway, talk radio works really well for me if I can't sleep. Try over break when you can to keep her busy during the day. She will sleep at night if she is up all day long.

Answer 10

..your daughter and i suffer from the same sleeping problem.. with the same reasons.. like her, i am also busy in school activities and homworks, reports and projects.. and evrytime i try toi go to bed, i can't stop my brain thinking of what will happen tomorrow.. and as a result, i can't sleep..

..thse sleeping problems is a result of stress and too much thinking of things to do..

..what to do is to let her think that tomorrow will be fine..

..always make her feel that she is not alone and a lot of people are ready to lend her a hand..

..helpless dad, you are no longer helpless..GOODLUCK!..