Very few children like to go to bed and most will do anything to avoid having to go to sleep but they normally succumb even whilst vehemently protesting "I am not tired !"
In Sarah's case it was more than the usual reluctance to go to bed and in the past 18 months this has got worse and worse.
Sarah is still anxious about being left alone in her room and likes one of us to stay with her. On a good day we would take her up to bed and she would manage to fall asleep within 30-40 minutes. On a bad day she would not be able to sleep and would get more and more anxious the longer she stayed awake, and the longer she remained awake the angrier she got.
The past seven or eight moths were exceptionally bad and on several evenings a week it could take up to two hours for Sarah to fall asleep. As you can guess this wasn't exactly positive for family life. Several times a week I would come home from work have something to eat then spend the next two hours sitting with Sarah while she tried to go to sleep. By the time she eventually went to sleep it was virtually time for me to go to bed.
Family support groups such as The22Crew http://www.22crew.org/ are a great source of advice and we found several posts on the group's Facebook site which suggested that sleep issues were quite common for people with 22q and that, in some cases, Melatonin had a positive effect.
Following a discussion with our General Practitioner we were referred to the local Community Paediatrician. He suggested that initially we follow the recommended sleep hygiene practice such as setting a regular routine, no TV or computer games prior to bedtime, before trying melatonin.
We tried everything without success in fact the situation was only getting worse with more bad days than good days. It was as if Sarah's brain was unable to switch off at night. She was falling asleep later and later each night and then struggling to get up for school the next morning. Having exhausted all the options we got our prescription for melatonin.
At this point Sarah was keen to try the medicine and was quite excited when the time came to collect the prescription. Like most children her age she was desperate to have a sleep over with friends or cousins but this was impossible.
The effect has been unbelievable, she has a small does of melatonin each evening and usually within 30 minutes is ready to go to bed. Once in bed she falls asleep within 5 or 10 minutes and for the first time in ages she is now asking to go to bed and is yawning more than ever. The result is that out little purple minion has been transformed into a happy minion and both parents are now much happier too.
P.S. I though I should share with you the warning sticker that appears on the bottle of Melatonin
"This medicine may make you sleepy. If this happens do not drive or use tools or machines"
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