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My daughter can't sleep... what to do??

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Posted 2/26/2013 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hey guys,

My daughter has been missing school lately because of insomnia. Melatonin is just a joke, she laughs as she is still wide awake hours later. I gave her an OTC sleeping pill, and again an hour later, she was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Does she need something stronger like ambien? She has SAT testing tomorrow, she really needs her rest. She is 17. What have others done?

Samantha

Posted 2/26/2013 4:47 PM (GMT 0)
Wondering if her cortisol level is too high? that could keep her up at night. I did have problems sleeping when I was first diagnosed it is pretty common with Lyme. I use melatonin and it works for me. I also use the OTC if I have a headache too. I would talk to her LLMD about it.
Posted 2/26/2013 4:52 PM (GMT 0)
My 15 year old daughter has insomnia as well, but since it's been very recent we are still working on it. I believe hers stems from her severe anxiety and I am trying to get her treated for that first. I haven't tried the melatonin on her yet. Sorry I'm not any help at all....
Posted 2/26/2013 9:56 PM (GMT 0)
OTC sleeping pills are equal to 2 Benedryl is all. I have to use a whole host of things to sleep at night as my insomnia is now at an all time high.

Here is a link to a thread about insomnia that was fairly recent:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=2612510

Hopefully you can get some ideas from there, since her SAT's are tomorrow! BTW - Good luck to her!!
Posted 2/27/2013 2:16 AM (GMT 0)
When I had insomnia, these meds. helped me sleep through the night:

Clonazepam-.5mg, helped more than anything. Usually slept a solid 10-12 hours.

Zofran or Promethazine-definitely helped when I was also having nausea

Neurontin-helped the least out of the 3
Posted 2/27/2013 3:27 AM (GMT 0)
For OTC things I use a lot of Valerian, sometimes ashwaghanda, magnesium in high doses and Benadryl. I find the combo of valerian and benadryl will usually work for me.
Posted 2/27/2013 11:56 PM (GMT 0)
samjones,

My wife just refreshed my memory about that subject. We had found that Heather was not helped at all by 1-3 mg. of Melatonin. Her LLMD told us to keep increasing the amounts by 1 mg increments until it worked. In the end, it took 9 mg. of melatonin to help her. The melatonin wasn't perfect, but it did help.

I completely forgot about that whole episode. I guess that I am getting old!

Don
Posted 2/28/2013 3:13 AM (GMT 0)
Oh, I forgot to mention that, for whatever reason, the melatonin did not help me sleep at all and increase my neuro. symptoms a ton. I have no idea why, as that seems like a very atypical reaction.

I also saw on Dr. Oz that Melatonin can help a person fall asleep, but doesn't help a person stay asleep, if that makes sense.
Posted 2/28/2013 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
Well last night I ended up giving m daughter Nyquil. She passed out at 9 and stayed asleep all night. And she feels she did very well on her SATs. It's funny because the OTC sleeping aid has the same active ingredient as the nyquil, but it doesn't do anything for her. Must be something in the inactive ingredients?

I am nervous to try and give her more melatonin because she has a strange reaction to it too it seems, she wakes up more! It seems to give her energy. Will have to look into that.. But mystery, if it increases your neuro symptoms, I am thinking that it can have a strange reaction to my daughter as well.

Ahh the body.. it is a funny thing..
Posted 2/28/2013 2:41 PM (GMT 0)
My daughter, 10, has suffered from insomnia practically all her life. She has congenital lyme.

Remedies we tried have had limited and short lived success until recently. What seems to have finally worked is Unda 30. She has been able to fall asleep quickly and does so regularly now - for almost two months running. It's like a miracle! Our naturopath put her on that, and didn't tell us what it was for until after we had results, so that tells me it actually worked, and it wasn't a psychosomatic effect.

At about the same time we started using the Unda 30, we also added juicing to our daily regiment. Just saying, since there always seems to be variables that should be included when deciding what's working and what isn't working. We juice carrots, kale, swiss chard, apples, parsley and lemons. I'm lucky she isn't fussy about what she eats!

We're also on a gluten free diet and have almost eliminated milk (still working on that one - last piece to go is the parmesan cheese on spaghetti).
Posted 2/28/2013 9:02 PM (GMT 0)
I have had insomnia off and on and getting proper dosages of cortef (cortisol) has been key.

This is not a quick fix, though.

has she had the saliva cortisol test? It tests for several times throughout the day. Then you want a doc who does bio-available hormones to read it and prescribe cortisol and the right times of the day.

adrenal fatigue is very common in lyme.

good luck!
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