Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
I've just hit the end of my tether after 10 years and now I need help. My daughter 10, has always been an awful sleeper and an incredibly light sleeper. This week has broke me a bit so I need some advice or it will get betters. Something.
I believe she has autism, but we haven't had an official diagnosis (one of her siblings has a diagnosis and sleeps amazingly well).
My 10 year old has only ever slept in ridiculous patterns, like 2 hours at a time. She was baby #1, I thought all children slept like this until I had baby #2. I never understood why other parents weren't as knackered as I was.
I feel like she forces herself to stay awake on purpose, by watching TV, loud music, or sitting bolt up right in bed. When she finally does sleep it's for very little time. I realised recently how much I almost pander to it, I've always gone bed almost immediately after her as I know she will have me up within the next 2 hours. Again with the forcing herself to stay awake, she will want to chat, and try and get into a whole huge chat about things she knows we would have to look into. I give her plenty of time and opportunity to talk to me( somedays she does so the whole, need water or food, toilet, feel poorly, bedtime faking routine). I'm so over it. She's so difficult to awaken in the morning and nearly late everyday.
Last night she has me up 3 times. What can I do to help her get a better night's sleep?
I wondered if you might have also considered ADHD. My son has both. He finds exercise helps to exhaust him to make getting to sleep easier. He also has a fan going during the night which goes on when he is ready to sleep. He struggled to get to sleep a lot more before he used this and I guess it also covers up small noises that might disturb.
I notice you also mention questions that need looking into. The nights that I struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep I often find myself thinking about all sorts of things that need dealing with so sometimes I get up and make a list so I can forget until the morning. I wonder if she could write down questions so you can look up the answers during the day.
Thank you for the reply. Truthfully I've never considered ADHD/ADD for her as I have ADD and my struggles were so clear. Whereas hers are not like mine. My daughter is a lazy bones and won't do exercise unless it's something she's picked like going to the expensive trampoline parks. She has an alexa for noise sounds which helped in the beginning for a week or so.