natural sleep aids

[OceanCityGirl]

I need to get something for college son who has a hard time getting to sleep whenever he goes back to school. Sleeps 2-3hrs per night during week and then all day on weekends. Looking at Melatonin and valerian

[sunseeker]

Is he studying in his room or elsewhere? Studying in the room....believe it or not can cause problems with sleeping. Also noise in the residence hall may be playing a factor - most colleges have quiet halls....for students with sleeping issues...

[OceanCityGirl]

he's got his own room. They're in a four b.room campus apt. for athletes. Pretty quiet generally as they all get up at 6am to run. His problem is anxiety over things like his running and his grades. He's actually seeing a counselor who works with the athletes to learn techniques to deal with this but he just started this week and it will take some time. She said it would be ok to occasionally use something for a week or two but unless we took him to a psych nothing could be prescribed. So looking for something natural. He's had this problem before. Once he can sleep through the night for a couple nights it gets better.

[CrznDnUS1]

maybe try Cordyceps. http://www.chinese-herbs.org/cordyceps/. They are a natural chinese medicine claimed to cure most all problems including sleep disorders. Actually I am taking them daily and they lowered my blood pressure and cholosterol, but sometimes they give me very wierd dreams. Must be the mushrooms .

[Quiet and Shy]

Melatonin can be a good option. It's not a real "strong" sleep aid, but I've found it helpful especially for jet lag, but it might help in this case. 1-3 mg. Of course it's pretty safe as it's a naturally occuring neurotransmitter. Oh yeah, and just in case, he should really watch caffeine consumption...it can cause restlessness even 6 hours before trying to sleep.

[ph4ever]

I've used Melatonin in the past with great success!! Herbal tea with Melatonin always put me to sleep without that groggy feeling in the morning.

[land_shark3]

Except for the sleeping all weekend, that sounds like my life. Here are the causes and suggestions my doc gave me (even though I begged for drugs):

Anxiety #1
Cause - I wake up every couple hours going through a list of things I need to do the following day.
Solution - Make a list of everything you need to do BEFORE you go to bed. Keep the list by your bed in case you wake up and need to add something.

Anxiety #2
Cause - Being in a position where I have fairly important meetings that I can't miss, I often worry that I will miss my alarm.
Solution - Take an alarm with you or set multiple alarms. The knowledge that you have a back-up often helps ease the fear that you will miss the appointment (or in your son's case, his morning run).

Bed association
Cause - There are only two things you should be doing in bed and studying is not one of them. My wife used to study in bed and couldn't figure out why it was easier for her to fall asleep on the couch than in bed.
Solution - You mind begins to associate activities with locations. Don't believe me, ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking. Even after quitting, they will instinctively crave a cigarette or want to put something in their mouth when they are at certain spots (e.g. as soon as they get in their car, when they pass a certain point on the commute, etc.).

The countdown
Cause - Many times when I have trouble falling asleep, I will find myself saying "ok, if I can fall asleep in the next 10 minutes I'll still get 4 hours of sleep." The doc said that causes more stress than losing the sleep.
Solution - If you aren't tired, don't try and force yourself to go to sleep. For me, I go play Playstation. My wife will get up and read (once again, NO reading in bed).

Darkness
Cause - In some of the dorms and apartments I've lived in, you couldn't tell if it was night or day because of all the security lights outside the window. When I moved into my house, I couldn't sleep because it was "too dark".
Solution - Put up thick blinds or even tint the windows. Trick your your mind into thinking it is extremely dark. Be warned though, if you do this you may want to put a light on a timer so that it comes on in the morning.

Sleeping all weekend
Cause - Sleeping all weekend is its own problem. My wife can sleep all weekend, but she can also go back to bed an hour after she wakes up and sleep through the night.
Solution - Don't sleep during the day. Make your body adjust to schedule it needs to keep. If he has to be up at 6am during the week, he shouldn't sleep longer than 7-8am on the weekends. If there are no naps during the week, then no naps on the weekend. It is tough at first, but your body doesn't really know the difference between Saturday and Tuesday.

Since I travel back and forth in time zones, there are some other things to help adjust sleeping. The main one is try to eat at the same time everyday or close to it. As smart as we think we are, your body has no concept of time. If you normally eat dinner at 6pm but you have a drunkfest and don't eat until 10pm, it is going to mess with your sleep pattern.

[comemonday]

Is he studying in his room or elsewhere? Studying in the room....believe it or not can cause problems with sleeping. Also noise in the residence hall may be playing a factor - most colleges have quiet halls....for students with sleeping issues...

I have read that somewhere... if you have trouble falling asleep, you should only use your bedroom for sleeping (or something like that). Okay, found something that basically says that:

(entire article at: http://familydoctor.org/110.xml

What can I do to improve my sleep habits?
Here are some things you can do to help you sleep better:

Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends, even if you didn't get enough sleep. This will help train your body to sleep at night.

Develop a bedtime routine. Do the same thing every night before going to sleep. For example, take a warm bath and then read for 10 minutes every night before going to bed. Soon you'll connect these activities with sleeping, and doing them will help make you sleepy.

Use the bedroom only for sleeping or having sex. Don't eat, talk on the phone or watch TV while you're in bed.

Make sure your bedroom is quiet and dark. If noise is a problem, use a fan to mask the noise or use ear plugs. If you must sleep during the day, hang dark blinds over the windows or wear an eye mask.

If you're still awake after trying to fall asleep for 30 minutes, get up and go to another room. Sit quietly for about 20 minutes before going back to bed. Do this as many times as you need to until you can fall asleep.
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[Conolulu]

When my only sister died, in 1995...I could not sleep one nights sleep for weeks.....

I took the television out of the bedroom...used a fan..and Melatonin..

It worked. And like Connie said..no groggy feeling the next morning.

It actually helped reset my sleep pattern back to what it was before she got sick.....

[land_shark3]

entire article at: http://familydoctor.org/110.xml

Sounds like my doctor.

[OceanCityGirl]

That list of anxieties sounds alot like him. He got very poor grades freshman year. Was diagnosed with some learning issues over the summer and received alot of help. Great improvement but now he's under alot of pressure to succeed. If his grades don't do a big upswing this semester he'll lose his scholarship. I can't really tell him not to worry about this. But he needs to understand the constant worry will only make it all much worst. He's also found alot of pressure running on a team at the college level. Plus he goes a couple weeks and then really, really misses the ocean and surfing.
He knows he could come home and go to the local college and be at the ocean all he wants but he really wants to run so he's staying put. But the stress of it all comes out when he tries to sleep at night.

[OceanCityGirl]

The other thing is during the summer he's a lifeguard on the beach. He works 9-10 hrs a day 6 days per week. His spare time is spent on the water. I wonder whether going from that much natural sunlight to spending days in the classroom and the rest of the time in dorms could be part of the reason for the problem. Plus in spite of running he doesn't burn nearly as much energy during the school year as in the summer.

[Quiet and Shy]

That list of anxieties sounds alot like him. He got very poor grades freshman year. Was diagnosed with some learning issues over the summer and received alot of help. Great improvement but now he's under alot of pressure to succeed. If his grades don't do a big upswing this semester he'll lose his scholarship. I can't really tell him not to worry about this. But he needs to understand the constant worry will only make it all much worst. He's also found alot of pressure running on a team at the college level. Plus he goes a couple weeks and then really, really misses the ocean and surfing.
He knows he could come home and go to the local college and be at the ocean all he wants but he really wants to run so he's staying put. But the stress of it all comes out when he tries to sleep at night.

Try to help him understand he can only do so much at one time to help the grades. Some discipline for study and practice along with good rest will help him the most. So, if he starts worrying about the "big picture" of the better grades, talk him through what he can be doing about it today vs. the worrying. If he can get into that habit of taking it a step at a time, that might help a bunch.

[photogal]

Melatonin is good. If I've been drinking I take it also as drinking will wake you up after 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I also dont have a TV in my bedroom. My friend has one on all the time and will wake up in the middle of the night all the time. Dark and quiet it the way to go.

[haititxn]

i use Melatonin and Equate Sleep aid. it doesn't have the drug in it that tylenol pm has or benedryl so it isn't habit forming...however if you don't take it early enough you can feel groggy in the morning.

[jonesbeach10]

Also try to stay in the dorm room for as little as possible. Perhaps do homework in the library, common area, or even outside while it's still nice out (is the campus wireless?). If you use the dorm essentially for sleep, psychologically you will associate the dorm with sleep, and fall asleep quicker and get a better nights rest.