long term use of melatonin

[JsMum]

Basically because he is waking up at 4am and cant get back to sleep, I am asking any parents here if anyones children taking melatonin if there little darlings are waking up early? 4/5am

 

J has asked if can not take it for a bit, Ive let him, The problem were having now though is that he is not sleeping until 12:30am/1am/2am but once he is asleep he isnt waking up at 4am and is sleeping past 7am/8am, his performance in the day is also effected, tiredness, up and down behaviour.....he is also going into pubity, so wondering if this could interfere with long term melatonin use.

 

I really dont want to go back to the old days of having little sleep and melatonin has been a godsend, but he is having some problems with waking early, he has been going throw high peeks of Anxiety lately so it may be this but other than that I cant think what else could be causing it other than he is having an adverse effect to his melatonin so he is having a break from it.

 

Wish us luck.

 

JsMumxxxx

 

Edited October 25, 2009 by JsMum

[cmuir]

Hi

 

I've experienced similar with my son. I try to give him breaks usually for 2-3 weeks at a time during school holidays. We've kept my son on 3mg despite his consultant suggesting an increase. After taking a melatonin breaks, we found that he's responded well so it and so it's not really been necessary to increase the dosage. There have been occasions when he's been particularly wound up or for some reason he's not been able to get to sleep (around midnight) and so I've given him an additional 3mg (obviously after having sought advice) to help.

 

It's not until it stops working that you realise what a godsend melatonin can be. Hope a break does the trick.

 

It'll be interesting to see what type of break patterns others employ - I've heard of someone whose child is on it during the week, but has a melatonin break at the weekend.

 

Caroline.

[Tally]

I have heard that some people do need to take these breaks. I find Melatonin really helpful myself, but I don't take it every night, I only take it when I need to be sure of getting a good night's sleep, for example, when I have to go to work tomorrow. I find this works really well, but I do find myself needing a higher dose if I take it for more than 7 nights in a row.

 

Maybe you could ask J's doctor if more frequent breaks might be better - such as one night per week, or one weekend per month. That way he wouldn't get the cumulative effect of several nights' poor sleep.

 

Another thing that might be worth asking about is a slow-release version of Melatonin, because it sounds as if the effect is wearing off early. This would give him a steady release throughout the night which might help him sleep longer.

 

I have never heard anything about puberty affecting how well Melatonin works. However, puberty may be causing other changes which are making his sleep problem more severe.

[JsMum]

Hi thanks,

 

J already has a break when he comes home from his resi school, also in the holidays he doesnt have it at week ends to prevent a build up, so he already has breaks.

 

J cant take the tablets or the capsules and the slow release where even worse, which is why we have the liquid form as that can be mixed easily with fluid and its pretty instant.

 

There is a possibility he can take it again but waking up at 4am is too late then to have another dose as he needs to be up at 7am for school/activities.

 

If he woke at 1am or 2am then he could have another dose but its not its 4/5 am and a real problem to fall back to sleep.

 

I think it maybe just down to anxiety and changes to his body due to pubity and stress, Were going to give him a break though, a good couple of weeks or so just to see how it goes, it maybe we need to look into his development and stress management.

 

It maybe he needs more support with relieving anxiety symptoms again, so we will concentrate on this.

 

Thanks for your ideas and welcome to anyone else having similair problems.

 

 

JsMumxxxxx

 

Edited October 25, 2009 by JsMum

[asnewb]

I think if you take any medication or natural supplement, the body will get used to it and the effect wares off with long term use. Have you thought about hypnosis cd or fancy learning conversational hypnosis where you use relaxing words and your child will get sleepy and SLEEPIER? lol I can recommend someone if you don't know anyone to learn from. I was watching Derren Brown's "stuck to the chair" video and did I feel very sleepy all of a sudden or what!

Edited October 26, 2009 by asnewb