sleep

[Gus]

Hi all a while since I've posted.

 

My son( Aspergers) is 16 1/2 and goes to college. He is up at 7am mon-fri. He has a train journey of 30 mins there and back he arrives home at about 5 in the evening. He goes to martial arts 5 evenings and trains there for 3 hours on 3 evenings and 1 hours on 2 evenings. Then 6 hours on saturday. Takes it easy on sunday,unless there is a competition.

 

All this is done on about 4 to 6 hours sleep a night! During holidays he will sleep half the day but always goes to bed at all hours,say 3 or 4am.Then when he has college and has to be up at 7am goes to bed at 1:30 or 2am.He says this is enough for him and I don't want to continue nagging.I go to bed late myself , after midnight usually but always try to get at least 7 hours.

 

Is this bad for him? Any opinions grateful. He does seem fine but he is only in college a few weeks,although he was the same when he went to school.

[cmuir]

Hi

 

It seems it's not uncommon for children and adults on the spectrum to have sleep issues. My son is 5 and has AS and I found since he was a baby, I was unable to establish a sleep routine despite using numerous techniques and programmes eg Solihull, etc. He seems to run around from dawn until dusk - he quite simply just doesn't seem to require much sleep. We've only recently started him on melatonin, which is a natural hormone which helps get off to sleep (it's not a sedative and doesn't keep users asleep). My personal feeling is that if R was like a zombie in the morning, then I'd know he wasn't getting enough sleep. Thing is, he isn't (even pre-melatonin).

 

Caroline

[annie]

Hi Gus,

 

My son (18 next month) has always had sleep problems. I used to worry all the time that he wasn't getting enough sleep even though now, like your son he's happy with the way things are. On days when he isn't doing anything, he'll sleep most of the day too. I guess, this is 'catch up time' .

 

Annie

xx

[Tally]

Everyone's different with the amount of sleep they need. If your son seems OK, he probably is.

[Kathryn]

During holidays he will sleep half the day but always goes to bed at all hours,say 3 or 4am.Then when he has college and has to be up at 7am goes to bed at 1:30 or 2am.

 

L (18) is just the same. She's often prowling the house well after midnight when everything else is in bed and during the holidays her sleep/wake pattern is the opposite to anyone else's. College helps her to establish a more "normal" routine, but I think she likes being awake at night when it's quiet.

 

I think she gets more or less the same amount of sleep as everyone else, just not at the same time!

 

K x

[badonkadonk]

Just to echo the above replies, it does seem to be fairly common.

 

I've always had sleep issues myself and had myself down as an insomniac for life. I used to find it very hard to switch off my brain (that's the only way I can describe it) and so if I was worrying about something/anxious even if it was a minor problem (like will I get up in time in the morning) then I would find it impossible to sleep.

 

One thing that has helped me sleep is putting the fan on at night. It sounds utterly random but it works. Because I'm sensitive to noise I would often be kept awake by my dad snoring or noises outside. For me I am unable to block these noises out like most people and in fact once I latch on to a particular noise it seems to amplify in my head and drive me insane. So even though the fan is a noise I don't find it irritable and it is constant enough noise to block out other noises/stop me from latching on to them. It could be stranger I suppose, apparently Wayne Rooney has to sleep with the hairdryer on when he is in hotel rooms (that's probably not true, just another delightful tabloid lie!)

 

Anyway that was then, now I sleep most nights. The only thing I've done, apart from using a fan, is to move in with my boyfriend. I don't know what's different here than at home (well I can't hear my dad snoring anymore) but I drop off no trouble most nights. You would think I would struggle more here as, as well as noises and worrying, the other major thing that keeps me awake is fear that someone is going to come into the house at night and attack me (I'm not insane I promise). Back home we had an alarm installed and I was essentially more protected because there was more people at home. Here it is just me and my boyfriend, no alarm and two guinea pigs to guard the back door (yeah right, they would probably just meep at an intruder asking for some green beans!!). Maybe I'm less anxious/stressed now I'm living with Neil, maybe it's because I'm in a better routine...who knows

 

I know however that these aren't the problems your son might have and he sounds a lot like Neil (also AS, crazy world we live in). It doesn't really matter what time Neil goes to bed as soon as it hits a certain time in a morning, PING! He's awake. If his routine is messed about then he can sleep longer etc but once he's in a routine he's like his own personal alarm clock.

 

My mum also has a couple of students at school who are AS/ASD and don't do the whole sleep for 7 hours thing and there parents too have raised concerns but as long as your son is happy day to day, coping at college and not having any negative fall out from not sleeping as much then I wouldn't worry about it. I definately wouldn't try to make him go to bed earlier etc as this could upset the routine that he has and could make things worse.

 

I know it seems weird and its expected that people should get 7 hours sleep a night but us Aspies like to do things a lil' different

 

Emily

xxx

[Lynden]

My little lad is only 4 but he survives on 4-6 hours are night. 8 is his absolute max and thats only if we've had him run ragged all day but generally he'll do 6. The least he's gone was 2 hours - he went to bed at 11.45pm, got up at 1.45am and that was him till 10pm the next night.

 

*I* however was knackered!! LOL

[wishingwell]

Emily

 

hard to switch off my brain, One thing that has helped me sleep is putting the fan on at night. Back home we had an alarm installed,

 

My son finds is hard to switch his brain off and regularly puts the fan on at night I thought it was to cool him down but he says he like the noise it puts him to sleep. He also asks me to remember to set the alarm every night and when he wakens in the morning he will ask did i set the alarm. This summer his sleep pattern has changed he says he needs more sleep now that he is a pre-teen 12. He is just off to bed and i won't see him until about 11 in the morning I never thought this was possible before he used to be up every morning before 7. By the way his dad needs little sleep and this causes quite a few rows i need at least 7 hours to feel human.

[Gus]

Thanks so much for all the replies. He still doesn't sleep any longer but he has reduced his training sessions to 3 instead of 5 nights a week. Has trouble getting up some days. I can't wait until the dark mornings start..should be fun..not.

 

Mary xx

[lynyona]

Kieran who is 21 has always had sleep problems he wont go to bed untill the earlier hours if i dont tell him to and in the summer months he has been know to be up as soon as it gets light.But then sometimes he will lay on the settee and go to sleep during the day depends if he s got anything particular to do like beat some boss on his games or win some race or win a cup final lol.

[ScienceGeek]

Personally I've always had sleeping problems. Right from when I was younger I only got a few hours sleep, then between the ages of 8-19 I was an insomniac and only got a few hours every few days. I don't know why but ever since I've been with my girlfriend I normally get around 6hrs sleep, as soon as she isn't around or stays up late herself it reverts back. There are times she goes away for the weekend and I will manage maybe 4hrs in the whole weekend.

[JsMum]

I think the recommended hours are between 6-9hrs for an adult, more for a developing child, my friends child has 12 hours every night wow!

 

I know I would like!!!!!! yes like between 8-9 hours sleep.

 

We are working on improving the hours recommended.

 

JsMum

[yoyo]

I always had difficulty sleeping as a child. I found noises very distracting and could not shut down at all. 6-8 hours were my maximum as a child and I never seemed to be tired. Wow! I am not crazy! I used to have nightmarish fears of being attacked or kidnapped during the night. As a student I could easily stay awake at night and sleep for a couple of hours during the day. Now I manage 4-6 when working. I cannot go to bed early as I don't sleep and constantly worry about work. However, I do rely on a lie in at the weekend when I could stay in bed for hours. Alas, I usually do not sleep at all on a Sunday night! A few have mentioned sleeping better with a partner; that is also true for me.

 

Yoyo

[ScienceGeek]

I've had very little sleep this past week or so. I decided to try the herbal nytol tablets and they do seem to have helped a little, gone from 1-2hrs to 3-4 so an improvement. I feel so very tired during the day though and then awake during the night, not a good thing when you are trying to learn chemistry first thing in the morning