Sleeping problems

[kazemporium]

HI

My nearly 7yr old asp son is getting worse with his sleeping, i put him to bed about 8pm but he doesnt get to sleep until the very earliest 10.30. Last night he was still awake at 11.30pm. Of course i couldn't get him up for school this morning and as a result he is off school.

[dolly]

I also have this problem . Kofi is now on 6mg of melatonin and 0.25 mg of respiradal but he still wakes at least twice a night .

[hedders]

my dd also has diffculty falling asleep it tends to take her 3hrs she is 6. We moved bedtime now to 6.30pm and trying to stopp the bedtime stories, her brain gets stimulated too easily, but its diffcult trying to keep to the same routine as on a weekend we let her stay up late on one night, on school morings she is soo moody she has only ever dressed herself twice in 1yr for school.

Edited May 21, 2007 by hedders

[kazemporium]

I am pleased i am not the only one going through this, i think i may make and app for the gp and see if i can get something to assist him sleeping. I try to get him to bed at a similar time at weekends. I have taken his playstation away tonight and have told him everyday he gets up late and is not at school on time i will keep the playstation, fingers crossed it will work.

I to dress him most mornings, he is 7 in a months time its a nightmare, i am sure his friends would laugh at him if they new.

Thanks for your comments

[MelowMeldrew]

My lad is a thatcherite as well ! 4 hours a night, 5 or 6 tops. I used to worry about it, but after 12 years it's obvious he doesn't need any more, and doesn't have issues with it. Although it wasn't until age seven I actually had more than that myself, because he didn't want to be awake on his own, then he settled down OK, and let me sleep !

[dooday24]

reece dosnt sleep well some nights he dosnt sleep at all, and then all of a sudden he sleeps for 14 hrs to catch up ive just got used to it lv donnax

[Clare63]

My son, 12, has never slept very well at all either, though he is very difficult to wake come morning. He has AS and I have been told that a lot of AS people spend several hours at the end of the day working through the days events trying to put them into some order. He worries alot about what is going to happen tomorrow and I tend to send him to bed with a list of the next days events to refer to rather than him keep calling me to come up and go through again and again what is going to happen tomorrow, its seems to work for us, though 9 times out of 10 he's still awake when I rest of us go to bed. We can't "make" him sleep but can make his surroundings as settled, comfortable and worry free as possible and believe that at leats if his in bed he's getting some rest.

 

Clare x

[oxgirl]

Yep, my lad is the same. He goes up to bed at a reasonable time but has always taken about two hours at least to get off to sleep. Now he's 13 and we settle him down at 8ish (still reading story, etc! ), then at around 10 we call up to him and tell him it's time to turn his light out. It's usually another half hour before he's finally settled and asleep.

 

He does need that quiet time in bed though, just to chill. He reads a bit and sometimes he just lies under his bedclothes making his noises or playing with his soft toys which live in his bed. He doesn't tend to get up, he's happy to just use that chilling out period and we tend to leave him to get on with it now.

 

~ Mel ~

[krystaltps]

From birth until February this year, C didn't "do sleep". He's only 8, but would still be up prowling around at 1 or 2am most nights. Then melatonin happened to us! I had read that many children on the spectrum do not produce enough naturally. I spoke to our paed, who could tell I was at breaking point and she arranged with our GP to prescribe melatonin. Life has been totally different since. He is asleep by 8.30 on school nights (we keep him off it at weekends to prevent his body from becoming over-used to it) and he hardly ever has meltdowns now. The angry wee boy has just about gone. School can't believe the difference either.

He's happy to take it and sometimes asks for it at weekends. He told me it helps stop the thoughts that keep him awake all night.

[Clare63]

Oh Krystaltps it sounds wonderful....I have tried to get melatonin for my son, our GP would not touch it and referred us to CAMHS who just seemed to ignore our needs and suggested a milky drink at bedtime..... I nearly told her where to put her milky drink !!!!!

Clare x

[kazemporium]

He actually fell asleep tonight by 9.30pm, my evening has been so peaceful.

I gave him a shower then read a book, i also gave him some piriton as it can make you drousy ( but naughty i know). Not sure why he fell asleep but its worked lol

OH NO peace shattered my 17yr old and his girlfriend just walked in

[poppy]

Oh Krystaltps it sounds wonderful....I have tried to get melatonin for my son, our GP would not touch it and referred us to CAMHS who just seemed to ignore our needs and suggested a milky drink at bedtime..... I nearly told her where to put her milky drink !!!!!

Clare x

 

Buy Meltonin on the internet-cant mention names but someone on this site told me the website to go for it-perhaps they can do the same for you.It works .

[Bambi]

T has always been a terrible sleeper and he is now on risperidone which has helped loads but this last week his sleeping is erratic again and he is finding it hard to rest (he panics about not being able to sleep).

 

Pleased u have got some peace this eve and at a nice early time!

 

Bambi x

[MelowMeldrew]

Oh Krystaltps it sounds wonderful....I have tried to get melatonin for my son, our GP would not touch it and referred us to CAMHS who just seemed to ignore our needs and suggested a milky drink at bedtime..... I nearly told her where to put her milky drink !!!!!

Clare x

 

 

I've always been averse to Melatonin personally, I'd never use it, I'd feel I was drugging my boy (Silly I know !).

[dolly]

Take at look at www.melatonin-info.co.uk loads of info about melatonin and recomended sites to purchase it. Found it good for getting ds off to sleep but not keeping him asleep

[di30]

Hi all.

My son is 12 waiting for official diagnosis next month of possible AS.

 

We have tried all ways to settle him down at nights, my hubby has to be up for 4am for work in the mornings, so this is always left to me.

Dan will mostly settle between 2-3am, he calls me about 6 times a night, due to his anxiety levels.

 

We have gone to bed early ourselves at 9pm to see if he may settle down this way, but nope nothing changes.

Again ever since he was born he hardly shut his eyes at all and very grizzly too.

We were lucky to get 2 hrs a night sleep.

We may be lucky to get 1 or maybe 2 nights a month he will be asleep by 12 midnight.

 

We have tried by not giving drinks or food after 6, so tea is tea and supper in one.

He doesn't eat sweets, but loves fruit, so thats a good thing i suppose but not too late.

 

My other son he is 18 and sleeps lovely like a log, I get jealous sometimes wishing that was me getting my sleep, and I find in the days I am dropping off, but there's always things to do.

I may suggest as soon as his A levels are over just to help me for one night lol by giving me a break lol.

 

I know it certainly isn't easy when you feel exhausted yourself.

 

Cheers Di xx

[stressedmumto2]

my son hardly never slept, he also has severe adhd and has taken melatonin for a while. The melatonin gets him to sleep ok so long as he's in his rrom with just telly on watching a video he still wakes in the night though, he's now taking vallergan on top of the melatonin and at last I can say I am having peaceful nights. I feel bad about him taking somany meds but if he wasn't on them we wouldn't be able to function. Hedoes behave much better when he is sleeping well.

 

If you can give melatonin a try it's really good <'>

[Shnoing]

Our son (3) has to go to bed at 9pm and he sleeps from 10pm to 8am - we have to wake him up for the kindergarten! After lunch, he sleeps noon to 2pm, on weekends 1pm to 5pm. Our elder daughter (ADHD) used to stay awake all night from age 3 until age 6 (that's when she came to school).

[Bat]

Our 7 year old has just started on melatonin this week, and for the first time ever, she's settling to sleep within half an hour, which is great.

 

The only thing we have noticed is that it seems to have surpressed her appetite noticeably, has anyone else had this issue?

 

Other than that, she is calmer and more settled, not as 'tantrummy' and seems more able to cope generally - I even got her into a shop yesterday (we don't do shops).

 

Has anyone any advice on meltaonin breaks though? I don't want to swamp her.

 

Thanks!

 

Bat

[krystaltps]

Hi Bat, before we started C on it, I read as much as I could, and most of the sites advise regular time off. We don't give it to C on Fri or Sat nights, and we keep him off it as much as we can during the school holidays (maybe only once-twice per week then - just to stop him getting totally out of his sleeping pattern). We've been doing this for nearly 4 months now, and it seems to be working well. He's on 4mg at the moment - I'm planning on trying him on 2mg after his summer holiday break.

Hope this helps....

[Cariad]

We have the same with our DS. He never sleeps, he goes to bed at 8pm and will call down for various things until gone midnight. Also he is up at the crack of dawn!!

 

He does have background music on as he complains about hearing "noises", also we are giving him melatonin.

[Bat]

Thanks Krystaltps,

 

We've been away for a few days, and will start to factor in breaks for her from next weekend, that said, she refused her milk (which had it in) last night, and settled well, so she's sort of had a break of her own volition! We'll just do organised ones from now on though.

 

She did manage to fight it while we were away, and only slept for 3 hours the first night which wasn't idel, even after I'd doubled her dose to 4mg.

 

Just living and learning with it at the moment, but her beahviour is still noticeably calmer, and we're only a week in.

 

Bat

[sams mum]

anyone considering using melatonin, a naturally occuring substance within the body therefore its not accurate to liken it to drugging the children, may want to use a normal tablet as well as a time release tablet. The normal tablet gets the child to sleep, the time-release one keeps them asleeep.

 

 

And as the children can get used to the dose they are given its far better to stop using it for a while rather than increase the dose, even a few days off would help with this.

 

 

much research has now been done into "autism and melatonin" and a quick google search will find you some very good info relevent to those on the spectrum.

 

here's one for starters

 

 

http://www.autism.org/melatonin.html

 

 

 

hth