We had her on 10 mg Focalin XR but the rebound afternoon/evenings were awful. We discussed a booster of Focalin but were worried she wouldn't be able to sleep at night so we switched to the Concerta this a.m.

She'll be taking it before 7:30 each a.m. (school starts at 8) and usually goes to bed at 7:30 (she needs a lot of sleep). Can anyone share their small child's experiences regarding sleep on Concerta? If it's a 10-12 hour release pill, she should be fine going to bed 12 hours later right? However the dr said it's a slow starter for some people so maybe it's really longer than 12 hours?

Luckily we started this today so we have the weekend to see how she reacts before we start another school week.

Thanks! Btw, she has Inattentive ADD and did very well on the Focalin during the day in terms of focusing ability. Her reading really picked up and the "light" seemed to go off early w/the Focalin (in fact we saw a huge change going from 5 to 10 mg the first week). But as the months wore one, the effectiveness time period shortened (fine for school, but hell at home) and by 6:30 p.m. she was literally bouncing off walls, running around, acting upset about trivial things, etc.

Thanks again

My 8yo has had some trouble sleeping with Adderall XR, but it seems to have been mostly from sleeping late. Now that we're getting him up early in preparation for school re-starting next week, he's asleep in a reasonable time frame.

I'm sure it didn't hurt that we upped his dosage again. I think there's a strange "middle" between no meds and optimal dose that isn't pleasant side-effects-wise.

My 12 year old daughter has been on concerta for 4years. She had trouble being able to fall asleep when she first started and still does. The only difference now is that her bed time is later (because she is older). She takes her pill at 7:30 am and bedtime was anywhere from 7:30 to 8:45 (depending on how old she was). The problem was that she would be in bed and still wide awake at 9:00pm.

The same goes for my son. He is 10 and started concerta 2 months ago. He used to be the type of kid that was "out like a light" within 15 minutes of his head hitting the pillow. Now he is awake for upwards of 30 to 45 minutes after he is in bed.

As for myself---- I used to be tired and in bed by 10:00pm and since I have been on meds, I don't go to until midnight-1:00am. As long as I took my meds the next day this didn't seem to bother me. But---- I didn't get to sleep until 3:00 am this morning and got up too late to take meds. I AM SOOOO TIRED RIGHT NOW. It feels like these past weeks have finally caught up with me.

I'm afraid the sleep thing is always going to be an issue with us.

hi need help.our son has had a problem falling asleep since he was little.he is now 10 and still the same problem.he just finished his two weeks dosage of 18mg and this week will start on the 36mg for two weeks .this is all a trial until march this year.he was on ritalin and doing well on it ,grade A and B.
we have tired lavender bath's at night ,story's ,even a movie to help.still the same .i find since he has been on concerta for two week's now he is more sensitive and is up now until 2-3am.me and my husband both work and we get early each day me 5:30 am ,my husband 6am and i try for about 20 minutes to get our son up to leave by 6:50 am to go to the babysitter's before school.and yes he play 's outside lots he love to snow-boreding .
any advice i would like to hear .our daughter is also A.D.D. she is 17 .
the sad thing to me is that i did not know i was A.D.D. until my daughter was 2yrs.
i feel like am to blame for what my children have .