He can't fall asleep but is soooo tired!

Hello and hello again SarahR, I'm afraid it's me again! My 11 year old son used to find it difficult to fall asleep and stills does when he is feeling stressed. We have found several useful strategies, which can be time-consuming initially, but have been beneficial. We put a drop of lavender oil on a handkerchief inside his pillow - he now associates this with relaxation and asks for it if he can't sleep. I used to do a relaxation exercise with him, where he would lie in bed and I would ask him to think about his toes, then scrunch them up tight, hold for a few seconds and then relax. I would then ask him to repeat this with his foot and so on, working slowly up his body until he was scrunching up his forehead and then finishing with his whole body. I would then ask him to think about his breathing and I found that this was effective in encouraging him to relax. This exercise could be recorded, I suppose, for independent use. We also invented the 'good thoughts boat', which is a visualisation exercise. It was a way of getting him to put stressful thoughts to one side, but not to forget them, as that is not realistic. He would think about being on a boat and would choose a companion. It was usually his nana's dog, or his toy Pikachu. They would be on the deck of the boat in calm water and watch dolphins swimming next to them (his idea). His stressful thoughts were put overboard, not to disappear, but put to one side for a while, so that he could think about something nice. He responded very well to this and a 'boat trip' was a regular feature of bedtime for a while. This exercise is highly individual and needs to be relevant, understood and pleasant to the child. I got these ideas from yoga relaxation methods and they have worked well for us. They may be totally irrelevant to you, but I thought I would post them, just in case. I hope you all get a good night's sleep!

Hello and hello again SarahR, I'm afraid it's me again! My 11 year old son used to find it difficult to fall asleep and stills does when he is feeling stressed. We have found several useful strategies, which can be time-consuming initially, but have been beneficial. We put a drop of lavender oil on a handkerchief inside his pillow - he now associates this with relaxation and asks for it if he can't sleep. I used to do a relaxation exercise with him, where he would lie in bed and I would ask him to think about his toes, then scrunch them up tight, hold for a few seconds and then relax. I would then ask him to repeat this with his foot and so on, working slowly up his body until he was scrunching up his forehead and then finishing with his whole body. I would then ask him to think about his breathing and I found that this was effective in encouraging him to relax. This exercise could be recorded, I suppose, for independent use. We also invented the 'good thoughts boat', which is a visualisation exercise. It was a way of getting him to put stressful thoughts to one side, but not to forget them, as that is not realistic. He would think about being on a boat and would choose a companion. It was usually his nana's dog, or his toy Pikachu. They would be on the deck of the boat in calm water and watch dolphins swimming next to them (his idea). His stressful thoughts were put overboard, not to disappear, but put to one side for a while, so that he could think about something nice. He responded very well to this and a 'boat trip' was a regular feature of bedtime for a while. This exercise is highly individual and needs to be relevant, understood and pleasant to the child. I got these ideas from yoga relaxation methods and they have worked well for us. They may be totally irrelevant to you, but I thought I would post them, just in case. I hope you all get a good night's sleep!