L-Theanine and Intuniv

[Dsmith05]

Is anyone using L-Theanine and Intuniv together? My 8 year old son is on 3mg of Intuniv but is having a lot of trouble staying asleep. He falls to sleep easy but wakes up during the night and often stays awake without me knowing. Last night he got up at 3 am and did not hear him until 5!

I know that they can both lower blood pressure so I am going to ask his pediatrician too but I am afraid she will not know much about it. But I was wondering if anyone had any real world experiences.

[Pennywink]

I don’t know much about L-Theanine, but my son reported a similar problem with Intuniv (guanfacine) when we tried it. Fell asleep great, but couldn’t stay asleep (which had never been a problem before.)

What time of day does your son take Intuniv? Maybe discuss with your prescribing physician if taking it at another time of day would help?

[Cjkchamp]

My son was on 4mg of intuniv and 400 mg of l-theanine three times per day. We didn’t notice any change with behavior or helping him sleep, and there was no trouble with his blood pressure. He was monitored monthly by psychiatrist. Psychiatrist said a lot of people have good results with it. She recommended using suntheanine which we bought on Amazon. They are 200 mg pills. We just didn’t see any results. We are seeing good results with broad spectrum micronutrients and use the ones through Hardy Nutritionals.

[Testarossa1975]

Both L-Theanine and Intuniv should help with sleep. Is your son taking a stimulant during the day? If so, maybe the doctor needs to adjust the dose, choose a shorter acting stimulant or switch from an Amphetamine to a methylphenidate or vice versa. My son takes clonodine which is used for calming and promoting sleepiness like guanfacine (intuniv). He also takes 1.5 mg of melatonin and cyproheptadine which is antihistamine that is supposed to increase appetite but also causes drowsiness. He is out within half hour after taking these and he has been sleeping well.

[Supermom3]

Try Melatonin. It’s all natural and won’t cause any harm. My son uses it nightly.

[BKuboff]

Hi! My son is 12 and has been taking 2mg of intuniv for the past 4 years. We also had this problem at first, but the psychiatrist switched his dose to the evening before bed. I make sure he starts winding down an hour before bed(no electronics), he takes a warm shower and I give him a 5 mg melatonin (ok’d by the doctor). We’ve gotten to the point where he doesn’t need the melatonin, but he’s very active with sports now. The best thing you can do is discuss this with the doctor who prescribed the intuniv. Good luck mama, it does get better or more manageable!!😊

[4lizzylou]

my son is using intunive and it seems to be working

[Eliza76]

For those of you who answered that intuniv is helping your child- in which way. We didn’t see results and when we increased the dosage it just made him so drowsy the next morning.

[Pennywink in reply to Eliza76]

We didn’t see results with focus / attention at all, but it did calm my son’s body. He has Tourette, and tics were pretty quiet when he was on it. But with no improved focus on top of it flattening his personality a bit, we dropped it. So now he’s on a stimulant.

I suspect we may combine a stimulant w/ guanfacine or clonidine at some point, especially if his tics go crazy.

[floydwhite]

my son takes intuniv in the AM and clonidine at bedtime. sometimes he wakes up around 3 and can't go back to sleep