increasing insomnia (11 yr. old girl)

Sorry, a lot of this is copied from the bipolar check-in thread. I'm beyond exhausted.

My daughter (11 years old) had insomnia last night and kept getting more and more anxious as the night wore on, waking me and crying. She did not go to sleep until 5 or 5:30 AM. After she kept waking me, I could not go back to sleep after 2 AM. Woke her around 10:30 AM, had a sort of brunch and took her to school around noon (though she's still counted absent). But at least she won't miss her 2nd teacher's instruction after lunch and can get her homework from the morning class she missed. I only got her to sleep giving her children's Benadryl, but this keeps happening (though usually not this extreme, and this is the 1st time I resorted to children's Benadryl).

I just don't know what to do. It doesn't help that I've read circadian rhythms change for teenagers, and though she is only 11 (5th grade), she is advanced physically and already the size of a small adult, 5'1" tall and just over 100 lb. And she's always been ahead mentally in all her subjects even if she is behind with some fine motor skills (brushing out hair tangles, climbing down stairs, tying a bow), but it seems to be getting better with things as time goes by. I am pretty sure she has sensory processing disorder. We just can't afford to get it diagnosed & get the occupational therapy she needs as most of the things she has issues with do not affect her school day, so the school does not pay for any treatment.

I just read an article on my apple news feed. This is a bit outside the box, but here goes. A father was remembering how he used to get his child to go to sleep when she was a baby. He found that rubbing her back 100 times , slowly and rhythmically, I imagine was very effective and it made him relax as well. Massage releases endorphins, so this makes sense. There is a lot of massage music on You Tube.

Maybe that would work. Truthfully, my daughter has never been a good sleeper. She never slept through the night as a baby, maybe not even most of the time as a 1 year old. I always had to nurse her to get her to sleep or to fall back to sleep, and naps, just forget it. Not even nursing helped with that. But she did teethe very young (1st tooth at 3 months), so that could have been part of the issue. Wouldn't nap as a pre-schooler, and her sleep seems to be getting worse. I am concerned too because I was never a good sleeper, had horrible insomnia (don't remember ever not having sleep difficulties except while on psych meds). And I've heard difficulty sleeping can be associated with psych issues later on. I am bipolar, it runs on my mom's side of the family, again and again, and I worry my sleep problems may have meant there was something to look out for, though again, I had a lot of other issues that are common in eating disorders, and I was always a highly anxious, worried child, and I'm afraid my daughter has a lot of anxiety as well, and she really gets so anxious she is crying the later it gets and she still hasn't fallen asleep and has school the next day. I never got that worked up I was crying about my insomnia, even if it had me highly anxious. But crying, whimpering off and on from midnight until nearly 5 AM (getting increasingly worse), which was when I finally gave in and had her take children's Benadryl, which thankfully worked.

My 13yo has his own sleep cycle disruptions. But the rule is...just because he cannot sleep, do not disturb the rest of us. He's been willing to learn how to reset. He's gone to school after numerous sleepless nights-the reset is once home no earlier than 7pm to fall asleep.

Does she get regular VIGOROUS physical exercise at school? This is a tricky topic since with your ED you have to avoid overexrcising with her. The local YMCA might have some programs she could do. When I was an overly anxious kid I really should have had more physical exercise. My mom always said “Just rest if you cant sleep”. Don’t turn this into a crisis if she is not worrying about something in particular. Play soft music?

Have you talked to her doctor about the insomnia?

My son has long had problems with anxiety and insomnia. We did work out a system where I would stay with him (I am a single mom), and snuggle and hold his hand while I slept. Even if he couldn't sleep it would help him stay calm. He had a box of soothing items he could fidget with that wouldn't disturb my sleep, and he was allowed to read.

He went to school sleepless at times, and it was difficult. I was much the same way as a child.

I don't have any really helpful advice to give about the insomnia. Probably the only real wiy to deal with it is through the doctor and through counseling and possibly a psychiatrist.