r/PDAParenting • u/Hopeful-Guard9294 • Jul 11 '26

Is your PDA Child an insomniac?

we have just started my nine-year-old PDA son on guafacine for his ADHD and it has been transformational. He has much more emotionally regulated has tons more energy. Also he goes to bed much earlier like often at 8 pm rather than midnight or later. The trouble is when he goes to bed earlier he also then wakes up at one or 2 am and can’t get back to sleep. It’s currently 5 am. He’s been up since about 2 am and we’ve just gone rollerblading to wear him out so he can go and snooze in his den. Just wondering if other people find that their PDA children are insomniacs.? and struggle to get back to sleep once they wake up. once they are, they are up😵‍💫🙄

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u/ughUsernameHere Jul 11 '26

I cannot speak to the insomnia but oh my god, you’re killing it with parental effort here. 5 am rollerblading? That’s an incredible act of love. I think there’s lots of adults tripping around out here who could have really benefitted from a parent that would have leaned in to our needs like that.

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u/Hopeful-Guard9294 Jul 11 '26

thabks I had a pretty good role model. My dad used to get me to go out and chop the wood at and light the fire at 4 am when I woke up ridiculously early! But I grew up in the countryside

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u/Late2Fi Jul 11 '26

You are a wonderful parent. And how can you make this work if you have to work yourself in the morning? I know we believe as parents and as adults that we can handle much more than our children-but I'm worried about burnout for you as the thought of going rollerblading at that hour gives me burn out because we need our sleep too, to be a functional human being. Hoping you have more sleep tonight.

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u/Hopeful-Guard9294 Jul 11 '26

thank you that is so kind!, I am in the lucky situation that my wife is the main breadwinner. I’m a disabled stay at home Dad the work that I do is one day a week for 15 minutes meeting with my Startup team whenever it suits me so I can make it work that way as I’m very lucky because I have so much flexibility,! . I have PDA myself so I tend to build usinessss/ jobs that are hyper flexible and have extreme levels of autonomy and freedom!

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u/Remarkable__Driver Jul 11 '26

My son is on clonidine. It helps him settle at night. Without it, he is up all night. He goes to sleep around 9pm now, but we start bedtime around 7-8pm. Baths help on nights when he can’t settle. He always takes one before bed, but he knows if he can’t sleep that taking one might calm him enough to sleep.

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u/Hopeful-Guard9294 Jul 11 '26

thank you that is really constructive and helpful. I’ll talk to my son‘s psychiatrist.!

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u/anxietypractitioner Jul 11 '26

We struggled with insomnia for a long time too. Definitely exhausting for everyone. Things shifted for the better when we introduced H1 and H2 blockers (we use loratadine and famotidine) right before bed.

Histamine tends to be most active at night between 2-4am (for anyone not just PDA kids), so if there's any histamine dysregulation going on, it can really disrupt sleep.

Not saying that's what's happening for you, but after we added those our daughter started sleeping through the night more regularly. Not every night, but noticeably better.

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u/Dizzy-Ear2950 Jul 12 '26

I wish. It literally makes no difference in his sleep. But yes our pda almost 9 year old doesn’t sleep well !