Lack of Sleep

[sleepflower]

Hello

 

my 8 year old has a recent diagnosis of AS, though i knew before diagnosis, if that makes sense.

 

I am concerned about his sleeping. He goes to bed at half seven every night with the same routine, yet rarely is he asleep before 9 or 10 (even if all stimulation is removed from the vicinity). He always wakes up before me in the morning, usually he comes into the front room at about 5 am, if he wakes me by accident i will go and tell him he has to go back to bed, but rarely will he do that for more than about 20 minutes.

 

he looks permanently exhausted with bags under his eyes (we are both fairly pale anyway). I thought about the weighted blankets, but he shoves everything off when he is in bed anyway and constantly complains about being hot (i have to fight to get him to wear trousers and not shorts nearly all winter).

 

routine at bed time is dinner, short time of playing, then bath time then either i read to him or he reads in bed then sleep. it has been for years but it is only the past 6 months or so it has been so hard to get him to go to sleep. invariably when i go to bed i find him asleep in my bed (not having asked me) and have to move him back to his own bed.

 

he will never admit to being tired, but you can tell by looking at him and his tiredness is having an adverse effect on his behaviour also, he seems on a much shorter fuse then usual.

 

I have increased his physical activity in the day with football club, kung fu and also a lot of skateboarding but to no avail

 

if anyone has any tips i would be really grateful.

 

thanks

M

Edited January 31, 2010 by sleepflower

[Samsam]

Hiya, I'm not normally an advocate of this and wouldn't usually recommend it to anyone else but I had the same problem with my son when he was the same age, so we got him a TV. For my son it was never about how tired he was it was more about his brain was trying to process the day and even books didn't hold enough focus to distract him from his thoughts. I would pop him in bed with his telly on at 7pm and put a timer on for an hour, when the timer went off I would go back in and set it for 5 minutes so he knew TV time was nearly up but to be honest we never got that far as he was asleep most of the time. It's not the best solution as I'm not a fan of TV anyway and don't really watch it myself and I know it doesn't work for everyone but it's an idea.

[Mandapanda]

he looks permanently exhausted with bags under his eyes (we are both fairly pale anyway). I thought about the weighted blankets, but he shoves everything off when he is in bed anyway and constantly complains about being hot (i have to fight to get him to wear trousers and not shorts nearly all winter).

 

he will never admit to being tired, but you can tell by looking at him and his tiredness is having an adverse effect on his behaviour also, he seems on a much shorter fuse then usual.

 

Hi M

 

My youngest was just the same! Both my boys are always hot. Aw has had terrible sleeping problems in the past. In his case I believe it was connected with being desperately unhappy at school, anxious about many things (including ghosts and aliens), and us being really stressed looking after elderly parents. He became very depressed. He would never admit to being tired.

 

As your son is 8 has he gone from infant to junior school, or has a friend moved away, or a teacher been off sick? These things appeared to precipitate my son's problems.

 

I believe that it is very common for children with asd, ADHD etc to not sleep much (my eldest gets about 5 hours sleep at night and is fine on that), but just keep an eye out for anything else affecting him.

[chris54]

Is this a sudden change. To be honest 7.30 does seem a little early for a 8 year old to be going to bed. What is he doing between 7.30 and 9 ?. If he going to sleep on his own, all be it later than you would like and awake at 5am it could be that he just doesn't need that much sleep.

 

My own son (9) goes to bed at about at 8, (In reality by the time he is in his bed it is 8.30-9) and will read for a while and sometimes it is 11pm before he is asleep and is always awake by 7am.

Edited January 31, 2010 by chris54

[justine1]

Hi I agree with Chris.If he is not actually sleeping at 7.30 then maybe extend to 8pm or even 8.30.Kids that age only need 10hours sleep.If he gets too much sleep he will also feel sleepy.My 6 YEAR old goes at 7.30 but sleeps 8pm and sleeps well never had issues with sleep really,but my 9 year old(NT) goes at 8pm and may be awake until 10pm or even 11pm,its usually due to something on his mind,so again maybe worth seeing if he maybe anxious.But he is usually fine during the day,no sleepy at all.

 

If you try extend the time and there is no improvement maybe take him to the GP,it may not be due to a lack of sleep maybe anaemia,diabetes or something else.

[KezT]

My son also sonds very similar. We did, at one point, look at melatonin (suggested by GP) but I was really not keen on encouraging a drug depandancy at 7 years old! I also refuse to allow him a TV in his room as I think not only does it not encourage good sleep, but my son is definitely not able to make suitable decisions about what he should and shouldn't be watching, and if we gave him a DVD/video he would watch & re-watch it all night!

 

In the end, we had long discussions with him about the importance of good sleep - he is good at understanding ideas:) We also swapped his duvet for a ridiculously thin blanket. I would spend the night shivering, but he is much happier with that. He bought himself a lava lamp which gives a fair bit of light but also something soothing to gaze at if he is awake. But also we stopped making it an issue. The rule is that provided he is in his bed and the light is out from 8.30pm-7am, I am content. I still tuck him in when I go to bed, and he is sometimes still awake, but he has been resting peacefully - maybe listening to music or watching his lava lamp, but lying quietly, and therefore getting a good rest time.

 

In the summer he usually wakes long before 7am - but he stays in his bed and plays quietly or reads, and my sleep is undisturbed, which is one of the greatest progressions we have made with him:)