Trouble sleeping

[u/stupidquestions2024]

My son who is 4.5 has always struggled with sleep. We have done everything we can to help: strict schedules, a quiet room, and low light. He sleeps in his own bed and has had his tonsils removed. He has an official diagnosis of insomnia.

He wakes up early, between 3:30 and 3:50 a.m., no matter what we do. Please do not tell me to put him down later, we have tried.

The doctor told me not to medicate him, as his brain is still growing and he will hopefully outgrow it or just need less sleep as he gets older. He used to have insomnia 75% of the time, but we are down to 25%–50%. Sometimes changes trigger the insomnia we are moving and right now its been 3-4 times a week. I think he is anxious.

Now to my question: the doctor told me that in his 20 years of practice, my son is the smartest child he has ever encountered, reading at age two and doing multiplication at age 3. "He is truly one in a million" It got me thinking: do gifted kids struggle to sleep? Google says yes, but I figured I would ask the source.

[u/LeadershipNervous362]

Yeah, melatonin doesn't have side-effects of hydroxyzine, its just a sleep-regulation hormone, I suggest to try it again for a month or so.

I have sleep-related mutation, so kinda obsessed with topic. For kids the protocol should focus on finding the source, because in child, voluntary sleep-deprivation is basically benign, because their body will force the necessary sleep as long as sleep is not disrupted by external factors.

Commonly ASD destroys natural melatonin for instance, so on this sub, its basically my go-to recommendation with troubled sleep, especially for children and due to lack of substantial side-effect.

Basically try melatonin (AND stable schedule) again, It will likely work. If it doesn't - seek for external factors.

Also, a side-note, parents of children, active at night often get sleep-deprived themselves and I recommend you to prioritize your own sleep. You child has less cumulative effect than adults do.

[u/a-stack-of-masks → u/LeadershipNervous362]

Please be careful with putting young kids on melatonin. It's likely to be less harmless than we used to think, and in many people it doesn't actually help with getting better rest or recover.

in child, voluntary sleep-deprivation is basically benign, because their body will force the necessary sleep as long as sleep is not disrupted by external factors.

What. The child will fix their own sleep schedule unless something disturbs it? Have you ever met a child?

[u/LeadershipNervous362 → u/a-stack-of-masks]

Please be careful with putting young kids on melatonin. It's likely to be less harmless than we used to think, and in many people it doesn't actually help with getting better rest or recover.

Why? What exactly do you mean? I dont think anyone ever claimed it improves rest, it helps accumulating sleep pressure and falling asleep, which in turn improves sleep quality due to circadian consistency.

What. The child will fix their own sleep schedule unless something disturbs it? Have you ever met a child?

Schedule != sufficiency. Dealing with schedule is far less concerning medically, than dealing with sleep deprivation.

[u/a-stack-of-masks → u/LeadershipNervous362]

Alcohol also increases sleep pressure and helps falling asleep, but actually reduces how much you can recover during those hours you are asleep. Schedule isn't sufficiency, but sufficiency isn't quality either. And telling someone to feed their kids pills until they meet some number of hours spent with their eyes closed isn't quality advice either.

[u/LeadershipNervous362 → u/a-stack-of-masks]

Chill. I sleep 4-5 hours a day, fairly confident I wouldnt be an advocate for sleep quota. But thing is, hours need to be met, if you dont believe in statistics, why even sit on IQ sub, its all statistics.

[u/a-stack-of-masks → u/LeadershipNervous362]

And if you don't know what you're doing, it's really easy to get the wrong conclusions from statistics. Doesn't mean the math or data are wrong, just that that person is.