son is often tired

NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:
NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:

Many days he does sleep in. Many days he gets up because he is
hungry or has to go to the bathroom. Some mornings his sister makes
too much noise getting up and wakes him up. We basically NEVER wake
him up.
Sorry, but that doesn't really sound like a regular routine to me.


I meant a regular go TO bed routine.

Yes, that's not helping him though. If he gets to sleep in he will not
be tired when you put him TO bed.


But he IS tired when he goes to bed. He COMPLAINS about being tired but not
able to fall asleep.


He's not falling asleep when you're
putting him to bed, so he may need a better morning routine as in
getting up at the same time every day.

Get him up whenever you get up or his siblings get up. Make it a
fixed time, like 7 or 8a.m. or something and put him to bed at a
set time, too, like 8p.m. That gives him about 12 hours to sleep
in, which means even if he doesn't fall asleep right away he should
get enough sleep. Be super rigid for a while (I'd say 2 weeks) no
exceptions except for emergencies and a weekend is not an
emergency, then see if it has improved any.


That makes no sense. He is already walking wounded, and you want me
to curtail his sleep further? The problem is not being able to slow
his mind down. He has TOLD me this. His difficulty in falling asleep
is worse the more tired he gets, as is often the case.

Well, you are saying he's not able to fall asleep, which to me sounds
like he's probably not yet tired when you're putting him to bed.


Except title of the thread "son is often tired."

Get him on a stricter schedule and see what happens. My guess is that
his system's pretty screwed up by the rhythm he has now so it'll take
a couple of days until he settles down.
I remember my school holidays, I would read until whenever, keeping
myself up, then sleep in the next day, so it was easier to stay awake
longer and thus I slept in even later the next day and that's how I
got screwed up with my sleep schedule. Not by waking early, by falling
asleep late.

Of course you're free to keep doing what you're doing and hope it'll
produce a different result, but my guess is it won't.



Anyone have an insight into learning to meditate?

Try the relaxation techniques, but if he sleeps in a lot that means
he will be awake longer and that's a cycle you need to break, if it
bothers you...



It is not me it bothers. It is him. I don't care when he sleeps. As
long as he does not feel tired all day. The problem is that he is
not getting enough sleep.

Yeah. But by letting him sleep in you're making the problem worse.
Because he will not be tired at 8 when he got up at 10.


He IS tired. He tells me so. He is rubbing his eyes and complaining of being
tired.

cu
nicole

Rosalie B. wrote:
You say the physical exercise helps. What are you doing in that
regard? When I was coaching a swim team I took two months of the year
off. One month after the big county meet in August and for the
beginning of school in September, and one after the winter season at
about the time of exams/graduation in the spring. Parents would
complain to me that they didn't like it for me to stop swim team
because their kids did so much better when they had swim practice -
more focused on homework, slept better etc.

Bike riding, mainly. I think we need more, so we are gonna hitch up the
trail-a-bike for the little one. Tonight won't be a problem. We had tae kwon
do this evening.

Stephanie wrote:

Anyone have an insight into learning to meditate?


I do not. Sorry. We have not tried that. I don't really know how to
meditate myself so I really don't know how to teach a kid that. We
tried message (which he likes but didn't work), relaxing music and white
noise but that did not work and he didn't even like it that much.

Like Rosalie said - swimming is awesome. We did not do a lot of that
last year because it was so difficult with the little boys and we had
more sleep problems. I'm wondering now if that isn't the resistance on
the muscles. I wonder if pushing/pulling heavy loads would have a
similar result? Anyway - that is when I asked my ped about the
melatonin. My son takes an ADHD medication during the school year that
has insomnia as a side effect but he only experiences that in the first
month of taking it, after that he seems to have more trouble falling
asleep when he is not on the med. We tried no screen time (I have a no
computer/TV rule on M-F during the school year), regular wake up and go
to bed times and routines, I used to read to him for up to 45 minutes or
so each night, looking at books on his own. I have not fiddled with his
diet. The cutting out milk suggestion was interesting. He doesn't have
allergies but he eats cereal nearly every night before bed. Any stress
or school pressure makes it worse. That is hard because he is either
unable to identify it as stress or unwilling to talk about it. I hope
that changes a bit as he gets older. I don't mean to blab on about my
own kid - I mainly just want to share that I totally get what you are
talking about. My son will lay there for *hours*, awake in his bed.
Recently he has started waking up in the middle of the night - which is
even worse. I hope that goes away when we get the routine going again.

Good luck. I've been watching the thread closely too. My other son
sometimes takes what I consider a long time to fall asleep but it isn't
terrible. It takes him sometimes 45 minutes, which seems like along
time for a 7yo, but he does fall asleep so I don't worry about him.

--

Nikki, mama to 4 boys

"Stephanie" wrote in message
. ..
NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:
NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:

Many days he does sleep in. Many days he gets up because he is
hungry or has to go to the bathroom. Some mornings his sister makes
too much noise getting up and wakes him up. We basically NEVER wake
him up.
Sorry, but that doesn't really sound like a regular routine to me.


I meant a regular go TO bed routine.

Yes, that's not helping him though. If he gets to sleep in he will not
be tired when you put him TO bed.


But he IS tired when he goes to bed. He COMPLAINS about being tired but
not able to fall asleep.


He's not falling asleep when you're
putting him to bed, so he may need a better morning routine as in
getting up at the same time every day.

Get him up whenever you get up or his siblings get up. Make it a
fixed time, like 7 or 8a.m. or something and put him to bed at a
set time, too, like 8p.m. That gives him about 12 hours to sleep
in, which means even if he doesn't fall asleep right away he should
get enough sleep. Be super rigid for a while (I'd say 2 weeks) no
exceptions except for emergencies and a weekend is not an
emergency, then see if it has improved any.


That makes no sense. He is already walking wounded, and you want me
to curtail his sleep further? The problem is not being able to slow
his mind down. He has TOLD me this. His difficulty in falling asleep
is worse the more tired he gets, as is often the case.

Well, you are saying he's not able to fall asleep, which to me sounds
like he's probably not yet tired when you're putting him to bed.


Except title of the thread "son is often tired."

Get him on a stricter schedule and see what happens. My guess is that
his system's pretty screwed up by the rhythm he has now so it'll take
a couple of days until he settles down.
I remember my school holidays, I would read until whenever, keeping
myself up, then sleep in the next day, so it was easier to stay awake
longer and thus I slept in even later the next day and that's how I
got screwed up with my sleep schedule. Not by waking early, by falling
asleep late.

Of course you're free to keep doing what you're doing and hope it'll
produce a different result, but my guess is it won't.



Anyone have an insight into learning to meditate?

Try the relaxation techniques, but if he sleeps in a lot that means
he will be awake longer and that's a cycle you need to break, if it
bothers you...



It is not me it bothers. It is him. I don't care when he sleeps. As
long as he does not feel tired all day. The problem is that he is
not getting enough sleep.

Yeah. But by letting him sleep in you're making the problem worse.
Because he will not be tired at 8 when he got up at 10.


He IS tired. He tells me so. He is rubbing his eyes and complaining of
being tired.

I've been thinking about this, and is it possible that he has a medical
condition like sleep apnea, low blood sugar, or anemia?

Also, is he getting enough mental stimulation in addition to physical
exercise?

dejablues wrote:
"Stephanie" wrote in message
. ..
NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:
NL wrote:
Stephanie schrieb:

Many days he does sleep in. Many days he gets up because he is
hungry or has to go to the bathroom. Some mornings his sister
makes too much noise getting up and wakes him up. We basically
NEVER wake him up.
Sorry, but that doesn't really sound like a regular routine to me.


I meant a regular go TO bed routine.

Yes, that's not helping him though. If he gets to sleep in he will
not be tired when you put him TO bed.


But he IS tired when he goes to bed. He COMPLAINS about being tired
but not able to fall asleep.


He's not falling asleep when you're
putting him to bed, so he may need a better morning routine as in
getting up at the same time every day.

Get him up whenever you get up or his siblings get up. Make it a
fixed time, like 7 or 8a.m. or something and put him to bed at a
set time, too, like 8p.m. That gives him about 12 hours to sleep
in, which means even if he doesn't fall asleep right away he
should get enough sleep. Be super rigid for a while (I'd say 2
weeks) no exceptions except for emergencies and a weekend is not
an emergency, then see if it has improved any.


That makes no sense. He is already walking wounded, and you want me
to curtail his sleep further? The problem is not being able to slow
his mind down. He has TOLD me this. His difficulty in falling
asleep is worse the more tired he gets, as is often the case.

Well, you are saying he's not able to fall asleep, which to me
sounds like he's probably not yet tired when you're putting him to
bed.


Except title of the thread "son is often tired."

Get him on a stricter schedule and see what happens. My guess is
that his system's pretty screwed up by the rhythm he has now so
it'll take a couple of days until he settles down.
I remember my school holidays, I would read until whenever, keeping
myself up, then sleep in the next day, so it was easier to stay
awake longer and thus I slept in even later the next day and that's
how I got screwed up with my sleep schedule. Not by waking early,
by falling asleep late.

Of course you're free to keep doing what you're doing and hope it'll
produce a different result, but my guess is it won't.



Anyone have an insight into learning to meditate?

Try the relaxation techniques, but if he sleeps in a lot that
means he will be awake longer and that's a cycle you need to
break, if it bothers you...



It is not me it bothers. It is him. I don't care when he sleeps. As
long as he does not feel tired all day. The problem is that he is
not getting enough sleep.

Yeah. But by letting him sleep in you're making the problem worse.
Because he will not be tired at 8 when he got up at 10.


He IS tired. He tells me so. He is rubbing his eyes and complaining
of being tired.

I've been thinking about this, and is it possible that he has a
medical condition like sleep apnea, low blood sugar, or anemia?



I don't know. But he has a regular doc visit, so I will bring it up.

Also, is he getting enough mental stimulation in addition to physical
exercise?


I *think* so? I will think more on this. Thanks.