Reverse Sleep Pattern - Again!!

[Lisa40]

Any help or advice would be really appreciated. DD's sleep pattern is really erratic again! We go through cycles of her sleeping during the day and being up all night. We finally work on getting this right and then again she reverts back to what she deems to be the norm. We thought we had sorted this out a few weeks ago, with the help of melatonin that CAMHS prescribed, but again the last 5 days (or nights) we have gone back to how she was. This morning, she was still up at 6.30 am and finally went to sleep at 8.00 am this morning and is still sleeping. I have gone in there frequently to try to get her up but to no avail. CAMHS keep telling me that this is an AS behavioural trait and is usually an avoidance tactic as during the day she is sleeping so doesn't need to deal with the world and during the night, when she is awake, she knows it is safe as no-one will be around. It is a little disruptive at the moment as she starts cooking about 3.00 am in the morning with smoke alarms going off and leaves a lovely mess for me to wake up to.

 

Any ideas on how we can get her keeping to a regular sleep pattern?

[Tally]

CAMHS keep telling me that this is an AS behavioural trait and is usually an avoidance tactic as during the day she is sleeping so doesn't need to deal with the world and during the night, when she is awake, she knows it is safe as no-one will be around.

Do you think this is the real reason? Some people just have a really messed up sleep pattern. I have AS and I would naturally stay up until about 4am and then sleep until the early afternoon. This is not a deliberate attempt to avoid people, and remained the case even while I lived alone.

 

It's going to be very difficult to change her sleeping patterns without her on side. If she is reluctant to make any effort herself, you might have to lay down rules like not allowing her to cook during the night.

 

If you can keep her awake during the day - even if she hasn't slept at night, she will eventually flake out and sleep at night. Keeping the curtains open and using daylight bulbs might disuade her from sleeping during the day. Maintaining normal mealtimes can help with a sleep routine.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Tally

[Cat]

 

I have tried everything with my son and nothing works in fact trying to keep him awake during the day so that he will sleep during the night resulted in insomnia and made everything worse. What I will say is that when he is feeling OK health wise his sleep pattern can become almost normal. However during the last few months he has had a great deal to deal with in his general health and he has been quite poorly, we have again seen a reversal in his sleeping habits. I won't say that I have given up because I will never do that but I am learning to live with it. I have also laid down some rules about what is and what is not acceptable at 3am, and cooking is simply not on the acceptable list. My son has a kettle in his room and I will tolerate a Pot Noodle if necessary otherwise he has to eat things like cereal or sandwiches and even then the sandwiches are made in advance of my going to bed because I wont have him in the kitchen while the rest of us are trying to sleep. My son bought himself a food flask and puts soup in it or anything else that he can heat up and add to it and he has found that this at least allows him to eat something hot. So while I have learnt to live with this my son is aware that I do not like it and won't have an 'Open All Hours 24/7' style of living. The rest of us need to sleep and I can not do that if my son is wandering about the house.

 

Cat

[smiley1590]

i wander round house at night while parents in bed as can't seem to sleep so do believe it is common AS trait in many ways struggling to fall off to sleep as brain tired finds hard to 'switch off' button and calm down and relax before going to sleep brains always busy thinking over so much processing it feels like doesn't need time to sleep our sleep patterns are messed right up and hard to work out 'normal routine'! i watch tv which isn't always good thing or go on here! think works for me smell of lavender calms my brain down rubbed into body relax me rub in chest area get arompathy spray works wonders for me! or i listen to music from mp3 player in bed! or have a chill in the bath! i used to sleep during day like your daughter CAMHS said same to my mum really! do you feel she has stuff playing in her head over? that she tired really and wants go bed to sleep but can't? do u agree with CAMHS on what they said? do you believe it MH connected that she worried ,stressed etc? sleeping in day i felt sluggish lazy etc wasn't do anything for me mood etc

 

good luck with it all -personally knows how it can be!so annoying and frustrating! my mjum was same trying to get me up you lost motivation and enegry as feel constantly worn out dragged down just by sleeping in day time! doesn't help sleeping at night! as like you say back to front!

 

take care

XKLX

[biker69]

Hi Lisa40

 

no help from me I'm afraid as we are going through exactly the same thing as you in fact you could be describing our 13 year old Son. He never sleeps till at least 3.00 am and now 5.30 - 6.00 am is becoming the norm and like your Daughter he would sleep all afternoon given the chance. He also suffers from panic attacks, has Aspergers and I think OCD. It is really impossible to know what to do isn't it? By the way we are also in Derbyshire, you don't think there is something in the Derbyshire air do you?

Biker69

[Asobi Seksu]

I go through periods of it too. D:

going through an insomniac period just now.

i've tried all different kinds of sleeping pills to no avail!

[Mandapanda]

Hi Lisa40

 

I have similar problem with 13-year-old son. He recently decided that instead of going to sleep at about 4am and sleeping a lot of the day, he should stay awake all day and hopefully sleep the next night. Even though he decided this he is finding it extremely difficult to put into practice. Last night it all went quite about 9pm and when I went up to his room he was fast asleep , however when I tried to shut the door some paper got stuck and woke him up . I just whispered 'go back to sleep' and left as quickly as possible, and went to bed fully expecting him to call out in the night. He didn't, and I haven't been in to him yet as I don't want to wake him if he's sleeping. It will be interesting to hear whether he slept or not when I speak to him later. Although he often says he can't remember or he didn't sleep much - but I can tell by how knackered he looks

 

I find he can have periods where his sleeping is better and then something happens (from a family death down to just planning to go out somewhere in the next week) and his sleeping will go all out again. It is very frustrating. He is not attending school and not even able to do schooling at home due to anxiety, but he is still learning stuff when researching his stories, and he is just generally interested in things. We are stuck as we are at the moment and other people can be very critical and say we should do this or that, but living with these problems cannot possibly be understood by people who have no experience of it. They can't realise just how resistant our children can be, and how they don't respond to the normal tactics people use with other children.

 

CAMHS have said that if I can't drag him out of bed kicking and screaming whether he likes it or not, there is no help they can give us. (they have never said anything about avoidance tactic, I think they just think he's doing what he wants and I'm letting him!). So we are just doing what we think is right. Gradually trying to build up his confidence and letting him 'find himself'. We encourage and point out anything he does which can count as learning (as opposed to 'education' which let's face it is a very rigid and narrow thing). It is going to be a very slow process and I don't know what the outcome will be or what the future holds, but I will at least know that I have done what I really believe is right for him.

Edited July 2, 2009 by Mandapanda

[Cariad]

We have the opposite as T doesn't get to sleep until around 3am and up at 7am ready for the day! We are exhausted.. Is there a way to break the pattern and take her out in the day and wear her out physically, maybe go swimming quite late and melatonin? Just a thought..