Ideas for staying asleep (not falling asleep)?

[hope111]

My 7 yo son falls asleep the instant his head hits the pillow, but he gets up several times each night. He takes care of himself at night (uses the potty and back to bed), but it really disrupts his sleep and leaves him always exhausted. This has been going on for years.

We recently started epsom salt baths (3-4x/wk, 1 cup) with lavender oil drops daily, and a weighted blanket, and for a week he slept all night and we noticed huge improvements in behavior.

But now he’s back to getting up in the night again. I would love help with any ideas. When he was younger he had a bed wetting phase where we emphasized calmly over and over that if he woke up in the night he should take himself potty and back to bed. He outgrew it pretty quickly, but I’ve always suspected my rules-based guy memorized it as a rule and now is so deeply in the habit that he’s up all night going to the bathroom. There may be some anxiety underlying it that if he doesn’t he is afraid he would wet the bed again even though he hasn’t for years. Does anyone else have a child who wakes at night and any tips??

[DayFisher]

Good day, when my daughter was that age, we went through similar issues. We eventually cut back on water about an hour to an hour and a half before bedtime. We also stopped using her nightlight to reduce anything that might stir her from lighter sleep cycles. She is now 11 and when she is a little more anxious she likes to sleep with the radio on very softly. Gives her something else to think about. Good luck.

[willandgrace]

this is a small tip but- my ADHD son sleeps best with some white noise in the background. I put a fan on "low" The noise helps him sleep better-

[hope111]

I’ve been cautious not to introduce a radio, fan, etc at bedtime because my son likes routine so much that anything new quickly becomes a habit/new routine, and I didn’t want him to lifelong need a sound for sleeping. Is this an issue for any others? How do you use it to help them stay asleep without creating it as a long term ‘dependence’ on the sound? Or maybe that’s okay and I need to think about it more flexibly

[Pennywink in reply to hope111]

I would maybe do more research on if having white noise is good / bad.

Ultimately, I think you might be ok with a low fan if it helps. I feel the bigger problem is sleep dependency on things that are harder to come by or require someone else (like being rocked, need a specific type of music.) But a fan is pretty easy to come by and will be steady / readily available (except maybe in a power outage.)

[Janice_H]

Try a small dose of melatonin or white noise from a fan. There are also herbal teas to help with restlessness.

[Vickie109]

My son takes melatonin on school nights and has had a humidifier fan since he was an infant. He is almost 10 now. When traveling, we have "travel" white noise machines. I never thought about long term, but I assume he would always benefit from something like this and don't see it a dependance type thing. It's just the way it is. Good luck!

[SylvieS]

It may be worth seeing a sleep specialist. My son had the same problem. He woke up several times a night. He also had a hard time falling back asleep and was a restless sleeper. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea and underwent tonsillectomy. I wish we had done it years earlier as his sleep improved dramatically and so did his mood. I found out later that there is an association between ADHD and sleep apnea in kids. A sleep specialist can be very helpful in identifying the cause of his nighttime arousals and safe treatments.