Teen sleeping problem

[thtoo2112]

I had 14 years old daughter. She have been problems with sleeping at night saying keep waking up then can not go back to bed until 4 am in the morning. Therefore the next day she very irregular moody swing. After school she sleeped 4- 7 pm she not sleep until 11 pm 12 still not sleeping . I can’t tell her to put the phone away.
I have taking her GP to discuss this matter the doctor gave her strong Melatonin . She took the medicine fall asleep around
9 or 10 pm then she woke up like 2 am couldn’t go to bed until 5 am .
My final solution is to disconnect her phone I not sure how her reaction toward me . I am thinking when she woke up during the night she used phone I think that the reason she couldn’t go to bed .
On the other hand her academic performance from school is not affect from this sleep problem. She had very good results from school which I very pleased with that.
Please advise how to solve this matter.
Kind Regards,
Thi .

[Astra-RO]

Hi @thtoo2112, thanks for reaching out about what's been happening with your daughter. It sounds like she's been struggling with staying asleep and this has been negatively affecting her mood, which would be stressful for the both of you. It's really great you've been trying to support her with this by taking her to the GP and thinking about other contributing factors.

I wonder if you've been able to chat with the GP about the melatonin not helping things? 

I can hear how much you care about your daughter's wellbeing and are wondering whether it might be helpful to encourage her to disconnect from her phone before bed. It's true that having a break from screen time before bed can help with getting to sleep. Do you think it could be worth having an open conversation about your thoughts on this? We have an article on helping your teen take a break from technology here, if that's helpful.

It may also be helpful to ask her how she's feeling about her sleep struggles, and what she thinks what could be contributing to them, as well as what could be helpful for her. 

I also wanted to share this collection of articles on sleep and teens, as well as an app called Sleep Ninja which can be helpful for young people struggling with their sleep.

I hope this is helpful and your daughter is able to get some improvement in her sleep soon