My daughter is on anti-epileptic medicine which has insomnia as a side effect. She takes melatonin which helps her get off to sleep, otherwise she could still be lying there awake at 11pm.  Fatigue is a seizure trigger.  Don't make assumptions.

It's not always possible to "get them tired" to fix a sleep problem with every child. My 5 year old has a sleep disorder and has been diagnosed with extreme hyperactivity along with other issues. We are a very active family who spends a lot of time outdoors each day together. We knew there was a problem when we purposely spent hours each day trying to "wear her out"playing with her, swimming, running, hiking as a family, and it didn't change the outcome one bit. At 5 yrs old it takes 3-4 hours to fall asleep (no matter what time she lies down) and still wakes every 45 min to an hour all night EVERY night without the help of melatonin. An average night's sleep is 5-6 hours max when you factor in how many times she wakes and how long she stays awake.

I'm that mom who refuses to give my kids any pill unless it's absolutely needed. The only thing that has helped her fall asleep and stay asleep is Melatonin. I don't condone using it every night on a child, but if it taking it for a couple weeks at a time helps my daughter "reset" into a normal sleep cycle I'm all for it. There are side effects of the long term lack of sleep as well.

My 13 year old plays soccer at a high level and trains several days a week. On her days off, she helps a friend at a horse farm. The kid gets plenty of exercise and fresh air. Oh, and she has insomnia. She's also pretty smart and can't turn her brain off. So yeah, you're wrong.

First and foremost, I am a firm believer in letting a kid run themselves empty to fall asleep.  When my kids get grounded they lose everything but the right to go outside and play.  Now with that said, you should all read this article about sleeping the night away.  It is NOT clickbait, it's from the BBC and if you do a google search you'll find more information on it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16964783

Nothing is wrong with our kids, it's our society...

People have legitimate sleep disturbances or social issues that impact their ability to produce natural melatonin or sleep patterns. If your life is working great in the area of sleep then enjoy, your egotistical comment progressed this discussion in no form. How did you have time to write this anyways if you are so busy "getting them tired"? It infuriates me when people damage the reputation of legitimate medications because they have a blanket opinion of medications. Hope you never take aspirin, or get any shots, or drink coffee (which is a drug), or use cold medicine.... you should "get more well" instead of taking a quick fix medicine.

I'll bring my 11 year old over who is hyper active and requires little sleep.  He can still be awake at 2 am and then up again, ready to go at 6 am. Mom not so much.  We use mild medication with complete doctor assistance and would not if mom and dad didn't have jobs to get up and go to and have to function.

I totally agree. My daughter uses it for my 2 yr old granddaughter and it really gets my goat. I think it is just promoting future drug use.