Concerta

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KIMKA

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Hi All

My son is currently on Concerta 54mg. It is helping him with schoolwork and homework. Only thing is he can't sleep at night. DR has prescribed Meletonin (spelling) but it DOES NOT work. Poor thing doesn't get any sleep. Anyone out there with advice?
 
Take a lower dose in the morning only. I tried a small dose in the morning and another small one at lunch and I couldn't sleep at all. Moving to 1 slightly bigger dose in the mornings only helped me.
 
KIMKA said:
Hi All

My son is currently on Concerta 54mg. It is helping him with schoolwork and homework. Only thing is he can't sleep at night. DR has prescribed Meletonin (spelling) but it DOES NOT work. Poor thing doesn't get any sleep. Anyone out there with advice?
Click to expand...

How old is your son? I'm not a doctor but have some experience with Concerta (up to 37mg)
- 54mg seems like a pretty high dose (but I don't know the circumstances)
- You absolutely must take it very early in the morning. 8am or 9am is honestly too late

If the dosage is right, and the pills are taken early we've found sleep to not be a problem.
 
KIMKA said:
Hi All

My son is currently on Concerta 54mg. It is helping him with schoolwork and homework. Only thing is he can't sleep at night. DR has prescribed Meletonin (spelling) but it DOES NOT work. Poor thing doesn't get any sleep. Anyone out there with advice?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this comment may end in a debate on drugs and ADHD rather than offering any advice.

I am not an expert on these matters nor claim to have the answers, but I would suggest that the fact the child is likely ADD or ADHD - his mind is hyperactive at sleep time.

My eldest son was prescribed Ritlan (sic?) which changed his mood - zombied him, and Concerta made him aggressive. We decided to stop the medication, but had the same sleep issues, and had use a dose of Somnil (I think it was) to get his sleep rhythm sorted. THis took a week or so. All of this happened a good few years ago.

Today, at 21, he sleeps some 4 hours a day and leads an active life without need for any medication.
 
He was on resperlet (once again spelling) when we were with the previous DR. He slept like a baby but the new DR is completely against this medication unless it's medically needed.
 
My son (16) has been on concerta for 10 years now, 54mg for 8 of those years. We found that the earlier we gave it to him in the morning, the earlier he could fall asleep. We stay quite a distance from the school so he wakes up at 6 and takes it then.
We also had him on melatonin - 3mg, which worked like a bomb but it was removed from the market a few months back. He has now slowly started to make himself fall asleep by about 9:30. We make him climb into bed at 9, no matter what.
Check the mgs of melatonin you have, it may be 1.5, so try the 3mg if you can get it.
 
Isn't melatonin still on the market but it needs a prescription now?
 
Can someone clarify this, I thought melatonin was for diabetics? Yet people who wanted to lose weight took it and now I hear it's a sleeping pill...
 
IIRC Concerta is extended release over 12h or so. Maybe ask the doctor for something with a quicker release, I think there is that release over 8h(Ritalin SR).

Metformin is a diabetes drug. Melatonin is a sleep hormone, it get released when it gets dark. Our modern lifestyle causes us not to release nearly the same amount people 100 years ago got. Your body also produces less of it as you grow older. Seeing that it has a much bigger scope of action that just sleep, eg. its an anti-oxidant in the brain and it release Human Growth Hormone that in turn release IGF-1.

I have been taking it every night for years, its not make you sleep in the same way a sleeping pill will do. The best way to describe it is that it betters the possibility of sleep, and if you fall asleep, it makes you sleep better. With it the next 2 weeks of month I'll probably stop taking it though, I'll then move to an experimental pineal activating hormone. One of the things it will do is to increase my own melatonin production.
 
Its kind of counter-intuitive but these stimulants at a low dose can actually help ADHD people sleep. Perhaps try a very low dose of ritalin (2.5mg or lower) at least 4 hours away from bedtime - the residual effect may help.

Stimulants wearing off can cause a rebound drop in dopamine leading to hyperactivity and insomnia.

That being said 54mg sounds like a bit much. Do you have your nutritional bases covered? (Fish oil, Zinc, Magnesium, blood sugar, allergy screening). Medication will be temporary help with rising doses if you don't.

PS: Melatonin is not of the market its just prescription now. DisKem stocks Solal slow-release.
 
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