«Sleeping through the night again for the first time in seven years»
Stephanie Liechti, 37, works for a health insurance company and lives in Emmental with her husband Bjarke, 38, a logistician, and their two children Sophia, 7, and Matteo, 4.
Sophia was born extremely prematurely at 27 weeks' gestation and didn't sleep for an hour at a time as a baby. The situation only calmed down a little when she was about three years old. Our daughter no longer woke up so often and was able to move into her own room when she was about four years old, shortly before our son was born.
From this point onwards, however, she began to have massive problems falling asleep. We would regularly sit next to her bed for up to two hours in the evening and hold out together until she finally fell asleep. It was extremely exhausting because we were also tired and hardly had any time left for ourselves as adults, but also as a couple. Of course, we informed our paediatrician about Sophia's sleep problem at an early stage.
After five years, the chronic lack of sleep gradually pushed us parents to our limits.
Stephanie, mum
Unfortunately, we were never really taken seriously there. Instead, he always just told us that there were lots of children who didn't sleep well. I should just take some time off. That made me feel like I simply wasn't capable of being a mum.
We then tried to help ourselves and tried everything imaginable to improve Sophia's sleep: from optimised sleep hygiene and regular sleep rituals to kinesiology, craniosacral therapy, globules, osteopathy, Bach flower remedies and much more. Unfortunately, nothing really helped.
Melatonin as a game changer
When Sophia started nursery at the age of five, the situation became even worse and the chronic lack of sleep gradually pushed us parents to our limits.
I then poured my heart out to the neuropsychologist in charge during a routine follow-up consultation for premature babies. And for the first time, someone listened to me carefully and really took me seriously. That was extremely relieving! The doctor recommended that Sophia be assessed by a paediatric psychiatrist, but there was a long waiting list. As an acute relief measure, we received support from a socio-pedagogical crisis intervention, which helped us to cope better with conflict situations in everyday family life.
Mum, now I finally know what it means to be tired.
Sophia, daughter
As part of this assessment, Sophia received a diagnosis that also explained the years of sleep disorders. The paediatrician recommended that we give Sophia some melatonin in the evening, as children with this developmental disorder often produce too little of this sleep hormone.
That was the game changer! With melatonin, Sophia falls asleep within 15 minutes. When she wakes up, she now finds it easier to get back to sleep herself and I slept through the night again for the first time in seven years. When I heard the sentence «Mum, now I finally know what it means to be tired», I was moved to tears, but also relieved.
