Melatonin can help for teens who can’t fall asleep. it needs to be taken about 2 hours before “typical” sleepy feelings occur.
I see this mentioned all the time WRT kids, well even for adults for that matter who have trouble sleeping. While I don’t doubt that this can be an issue, the problem is…my kids’ schools all require a lot of iPad usage (my kids are all three different private schools and all require iPads). Homework, papers, research, study notes, even ALL of their textbooks…all on their iPad. Older ds has practice after school and doesn’t get home until 7. With dinner and a shower, he’s doing his homework, studying right up until bed, using his iPad of course. Younger ds goes to school 45 mins away, with after school practice, he doesn’t get home until 6ish. Same issue getting homework, etc done. Fortunately my youngest is still in middle school and able to get her stuff done usually right after school but even the other night she was working on something right up until bedtime due to a mid-week evening lacrosse game.
While I appreciate the use of technology in their schools, I don’t care for the heavy usage these days - I really dislike not having textbooks, etc. It is near impossible to prevent my kids from surrendering them 1-2 hours before bedtime due to their required use for schoolwork.
Is it over the counter? I would be interested in looking into it for my daughter. Where would we get it?
Thanks @MYOS1634
Yes it can be found over the counter for light doses. For stronger (3+mg/pill - or mmg… Not sure on the unit but sure of the number) it requires a doctor’s prescription.
However timing is important (ie., Taking it 5 hours you normally feel sleepy doesn’t work. It’s not a sleeping pill. The body creates melatonin at a certain time and when it passes a threshold you fall asleep. So you need to have some melatonin already for the “top up” to reach the threshold. Btw I’m sure biology teachers would find fault in my way of explaining things.)
Thanks. Maybe we’ll look into it.
I have bought both 1 mg and 10 mg Melatonin in the vitamins aisle without a prescription. I’m not fond of taking it, but sometimes I do because I have a lot of problems with insomnia these days.
Wow, 10mg? I’ve never seen it. If @bjkmom can find it with vitamins, then it’d surely knock her daughter out in less than one hour!
Why are you not fond of it? (I’ve taken it and never seen any side effect. It’s not addictive, doesn’t leave me groggy or mushy in the brain or anything.)
Well, to be honest, I just want her to be able to sleep… no Rip Van Winkle action needed.
I think I’ll look into it, and see whether we can hold off until summer when there’s more leeway in terms of waking up.
Definitely read up on melatonin before taking it and take small dosages. 10mg sounds like way, way too much. I know some people who swear by it and others who have had negative reactions to it.
She’s tiny-- 5’nothing, size 0 jeans.
We would absolutely start with the smallest possible dose-- a little improvement would be great.
As I said, I’ve only seen 2mg and not heard of side effects related to that dosage.
Naturally, over the weekend there was other stuff to work on, like SAT on Saturday and AP tests on Monday and Tuesday. And even without these, there is ALWAYS work when you have 6 IB classes plus Calc 3 plus extracurriculars. This volunteering is a weekly thing, started recently (mentoring other kids in school), and I rolled my eyes when I learned about it but I wasn’t consulted. All of this is his choice, not the parents’. And with all of this, as I said, I think he’s doing great time management and better off than many others in terms of sleep. Yes, I guess I could try to really make him drop a bunch of stuff to enforce 8 hours of sleep plus 1-2 hours of screen-less time before bed (meaning no homework or socializing these days). That would result in artificially holding him back, letting him see how other kids of equal or lesser talents get into better colleges and are generally celebrated for their achievements, and likely spoiling our parent-child relationship for ever. See what I mean?
I recently went to a presentation by a doctor who specializes in sleep issues, particularly in children. She has been going around the country advocating that schools start their day later, around 8:30 or 9 if possible, because of all the studies that show when adolescents get their best sleep, and the studies that show the high correlation between sleep deprivation, car accidents, and depression. @MYOS1634 said substantially the same things as this doctor. Here’s some things I took notes on, in no particular order:
- There are blue light blockers for many electronics like iPads which help reduce the problem but don't solve it. The blockers are a film you put over the screen. Absolute shut-off time, even with a blocker, is 30 mins before sleep. If you can't fall asleep after 20 minutes, you can read on a kindle, which has a gray scale background and therefore does not emit blue light.
- Sleep deprivation can actually decrease a kid's physical growth. It has terrible, significant mental health effects (depression, anxiety). It strongly negatively impacts impulse control behavior.
- There is a correlation between early heavy use of caffeine and later use of illegal drugs.
- If you take melatonin you should take 1/2 mil six hours before bedtime. You should stop all caffeine 6 to 8 hours before bedtime. BTW, my D's pediatrician had my D taking melatonin starting at age 10 and said to follow the dosage on the box. It didn't help her at all, but I know we didn't start the dosage six hours before, more like 1 or maybe 2. I can't remember because we stopped using it.
- If you want to sleep in on the weekends, don't sleep later than 2 hours more. Otherwise you'll have jet lag Monday morning. If you want to take a nap, keep it under 20 minutes and before 4pm.
- Sleeping Through The Night by Gregg Jacobs is a book she recommends.
If I take it and then don’t get to sleep really early and have to get up at 6:15 on days when I have a morning class, sometimes I’m so out of it that I can’t even wake up. Or it leaves me fighting to stay awake for 3-4 hours after I do get up. I also have prescription Doxepin, but that’s even worse so I try not to take that either. Probably part of the problem is that I have multiple sleep disorders which affect both day AND night.
Am close with a neurologist who specializes in sleep medicine. He frequently observes sleep deprivation and poor sleeping habits in people of all ages, across many professions, etc. Not getting enough sleep is basis for many physical and emotional complications and complaints. The need for consistent, adequate sleep is not to be minimized or dismissed. He reiterates this often in professional and personal interactions when people remark, “Oh, I wish I could sleep more!” Bottom line: Protect your sleep!
“If you want to take a nap, keep it under 20 minutes”
I wish I could efficiently take cat naps. I just can’t. They’ve never worked for me. For people that do, they really seem to help.
Which leads me to the point that although I agree with the many benefits of gooding a good night’s sleep and the importance of it (research shows a link to weight loss/gain as well), I do think different people have naturally different sleep cycles/habits and it is hard to talk about the subject in terms of averages or norms.
Melatonin doesn’t do anything for me. There is a good herbal tea called Nighty Night which I think really helps relax - my college dd likes it alot.
@sylvan8798
At what time do you naturally feel sleepy?
At what time do you try to fall asleep?
You need to time melatonin - you can’t take it then not start your going-to-bed rituals. In off the counter dosage, it has to be about 2 hours before you want to fall asleep and about 1 hour before you stop “doing stuff”.
Before abdays you need to get up at 6, you need to be asleep at 11 or so, which means taking melatonin between 9 and 10 and at 10 being in pajamas, getting some warm milk,
doing calling activities like reading a favorite book, writing, drawing, etc not working on a paper or getting worked up on Twitter 
Try that and at 11 you’ll be falling asleep.
^I think I will try experimenting over the summer when I am not teaching - maybe I will have questions for those of you with more expertise! I have a feeling that many people could benefit from paying more attention to their sleep functions rather than just masking the issues with caffeine or causing themselves issues down the road.
In fact, question 1: Would you say that wine at/near bedtime is a bad idea? We often have a glass late while watching something light on tv or reading to relax.
I don’t think it has any positive or negative effects. But this is just my impression! 