advise needed - my 9 yr old son has difficulty getting off to sleep

Fen1

A couple of ideas:

1. No hot chocolate - chocolate is a stimulant.
2. Swop around the play time and homework time. He is exercising his brain late in the day with the homework session. He's already had a break after school with the after-school clubs.
3. Try a dawn-simulation clock from LUMIE (or similar). Their clocks have a sunset function which is very soothing and a really gentle way of falling asleep: no shock from going 'lights on' to pitch dark (which is a very unnatural way of getting to sleep). The dawn function may also help to get his rhythm normal. If he is a worrier, and it's especially bad in winter, he may have SAD, so the light-clock may well have a positive affect on him. The Lumie people have a 1 month free trial.

feclmum

hi,i had this problem with ds2 but a friend at my meditation group gave me a copy of a childrens meditation cd from the first night that i played it to him we have never had a problem.he gets into bed we turn the light off and cd goes on by the time its finished about 1hr later hes asleep,in fact all four listen to it now and also lots of their friends have copies!!
relax kids do some good cds,i dont know the name of the favourite one in our house as it is a copy if you pm me will try and get you a copy if you are interested?

anna2709

I think getting home at 6.30pm every day is too late - that's a long day for an adult never mind a 9year old, so if you could cut the after school clubs to once or twice a week I'm sure that would help. Also have him do his homework as early as possible, THEN have his "chill time" - he's chilling then getting his brain working again just before bed. And no hot chocolate before bed either - warm milk is good to send them off to sleep. Also a few drops of lavender oil in the bath will help (no shower before bedtime, it will waken him up) and gentle music on low will settle him. Don't allow xbox etc after 7pm, and have him read (anything) for half an hour in bed. Hope this helps (I try all these things with my 3 DS but they still can't get out of bed for school in the morning - strange how they can get up bright and early at weekends though!)

Madmel

I have a DD of 8.5 who is always wide awake at 9pm, so I don't see 9pm as unreasonable. She has never been a great sleeper and has difficulty in getting to sleep at times.

What works for her is no TV whatsoever after 7.30pm. She will read in bed for hours, so I normally give her 30 minutes or so then she puts on either Classic FM or a story CD. We have had to be selective about the stories as she got very upset by some. Winnie the Pooh which came free in a newspaper is wonderful as is Wind in the Willows. She is up at 7am 6 days a week, does half an hour of music practice every day and is working significantly above average at school, so it seems that she really doesn't need as much sleep as others.

As for the posting about a TV or DVD for a 5 year old. Sorry, but I would say no way. Both my children have a stereo in their rooms and lots of music and story CDs. Sometimes they listen to the radio. However, we can turn it down and it seems to lull them to sleep. The flickering of the TV would drive them bonkers and it is so much more difficult to "police", in my opinion, so we decided that for the time being, there are no TVs in bedrooms.