Always tired 4 year old

[michaellund]

We are trying to deal with our 4 year old daughter sleep problems. She frequently wakes up between 2 and 4am and is wide awake. Eventually she will fall asleep (sometimes with meds) and wakes upo again aroun 6 or 7 am.

She is still very tired during the day and very irritable. The next day she sometimes falls asleep on the kitchen floor. She will hardly take a nap during the day. If she falls asleep its only for about 45minutes.

At night before bed she is very hyper and runs around without stopping

We give her Neurotin for sleep and Tizanidine to go to sleep.

I appreciate any suggestions ot recommendations.

Thanks

Michael

[Lisa S]

Hi Michael,
I know what you mean. When you wrote this my daughter Catherine was doing something similar and I was at a complete loss to understand why. She was taking Cipro for an ear infection and I thought perhaps it or her ear was somehow interfering with her sleep or perhaps she was off her schedule because she had a two week break from school. The problem persisted even after she finished her Cipro and I think I finally figured it out for her, just in time for her to go back to school.

We had been giving her a Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc supplement every night with her other medications before bedtime, but we had discontinued it because of the interaction with Cipro. When we started giving it to her again, she slept much better without waking up at 4AM and waking up the whole house. Could the answer be that simple? I'll let you know if it lasts. Some other parents here have had success with Melatonin.

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with either of the medications your daughter is taking, but I looked up Neurontin and it can cause insomnia as a side effect in a small number of people. How long has she been taking it and is this sleep issue a new problem? My daughter gets wired when she is tired just like your daughter does and she always has. I say she is fighting sleep. A soothing routine at bedtime helped with that, but I am sure you are already trying that.

One caution: It is a good thing your daughter naps no more than 45 minutes in the daytime. If she napped much longer at one time, she could reset her circadian rhythm and you would have more trouble than ever getting her to sleep all night. My daughter's doctor told me this when my daughter was falling asleep at school and they were letting her sleep for the rest of the day.

Good luck, Michael. I hope you solve this because I know first hand how horrible it is to try to function on too little sleep.
Lisa