Advice for Insomnia?

[SarahJane]

LOL! Herd. HERX totally makes sense! SEE what lack of sleep is doing to me! I even Googled it & found something about myco infections in pigs. That was confusing.

 

I think I will try melatonin. Maybe I had seen past negative reports that were embedded in my head. I have heard good things but just haven't tried it.

[PhillyPA]

I haven't read all of the replies so forgive me if I am repeating. You might want to PM Tenacity. Her son has the same problem. She told me that her doctor (Dr. L) recommended that each day when her son falls asleep to keep him up and extra hour. Continue this, pushing back his daytime bedtime by an extra hour until he is on the correct nighttime sleep schedule.

 

I know - it sounds good in theory. I haven't talked to Tenacity if this method worked or not and if her son is now on the correct sleep schedule.

[mkur]

(Dr. L) recommended that each day when her son falls asleep to keep him up and extra hour. Continue this, pushing back his daytime bedtime by an extra hour until he is on the correct nighttime sleep schedule.

 

I read about this approx 5 years ago but I cannot find the article on the web. You want to keep the kid up an extra 2 hours every evening until they are on a regular schedule. The article said this is more effective then trying to put the kid to bed earlier because the internal clock doesn't reset. This will reset/sync their internal clock. I have done this for my child but he would get out of sync again. I think IVIG has helped with this problem or maybe he just outgrow it. There are some articles about blue light therapy on the web - I haven't tried them.

 

This is a common problem with teens. Good luck.

Edited April 1, 2011 by mkur

[ziva]

I have heard some good reviews about Tranquil Sleep.

 

It has 5-htp, Suntheanine & Melatonin.

 

I take it and LOVE it.

We were using Benadryl when his night time anxiety would flare up. But I just recently read about a few moms giving it to thier kids, and it working really well.

 

So I think we are going to try it next time the night time anxiety flares, and just adjust the dose for him

[lyme_mom]

Thank you all for the advice! I'm not going to be able to do anything until Mon because I'm going out of town this weekend...alone. Some ME time with my sisters. Will have to force myself not to talk all about PANDAS and all the various topics that I've educated myself about in recent months (CFS, vaccines, immune system, myco p, Lyme, autism, and more). If there was a big PANDAS Parents party, I could add a lot to the conversations...just sayin'.

 

I'll probably go to Whole Foods or one of our local stores to get melatonin. I think I have epsom salts. I think that cream is the same stuff others have said is good when kids go swimming to combat the chlorine. I am just tired of being tired. And the thing is, usually if he does go to sleep early right now (4am is early), I can't sleep...so I'm still up until 6am or so. Will try melatonin for myself. I would like to consult with my new ND before trying it tho'.

 

And Lyme Mom...what is a herd? We did steroids in the fall to try to get symptomatic relief before IVIg. We're supposed to start steroids thru PANDAS doc on Tuesday if the Biaxin doesn't help. I do need to let him know about my hubby's positive IgG too (IgM & IgG were negative on his test last month...now IgG is positive but dr is treating it as past infection). I'll start searching for a LLMD too. Nothing local tho'...of course. Will at least check with my ped's office tomorrow to see if he has a source. I couldn't find anything about steroids & myco p (tho' I did find stuff about not doing it for Lyme). Ah geez. So now it's good my son's up all night...I have much to Google.

 

THANKS again everyone!

Sorry-that was a typo. I fixed it to say a "herx". Steroids suppress your immune system so you don't want to use them if you have any type of infection because it will give the infection an edge. I think I read that it can allow the infection to go deeper. . My llmd hates steroids. Mycoplasma is not easy to get rid of but a treatment for lyme should kill it. I have posted many times that I would not rely on a PANDAS doctor to recognize a lyme or other tick borne infection. They do not have the training or experience that a lyme literate doctor has. You can pm me if you want. I don't know where you live but if your child has any of these symptoms too you may be dealing with coinfections of babesia or bartonella: leg pains (calf or thigh cramps), sore soles of the feet, inability to get enough air, night sweats, fatigue, bad headaches, or sore ribs. At least review the entire symptom list on the ilads.org website (under treatment guideline by burrascano:http://www.ilads.org/files/burrascano_0905.pdf) to see if any of these symptoms ring a bell. good luck!

[Tamistwins]

Sarahjane,

I use melatonin every night, it is a life saver. even my daughter who never used to stay sleeping in her room, sleeps all night and alone woohoo. I have also tried passion flower for the times melatonin didn't do its trick.

Good luck I am also a walking zombie my 22 month old wakes up all night long.

[mkur]

I read about this approx 5 years ago but I cannot find the article on the web.

Additional info for a previous post:

 

Still cannot find original article but I found this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronotherapy

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

 

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/delayed.html#chron

 

I didn't know this could be a syndrome when I was searching 5 yrs ago.