We have twin 5 year olds who are both none verbal autistic.
One of the twins has always had trouble with sleep which we had hoped he would be over by now but sadly not.
Going to sleep at bedtime is fine. He's happy for bedtime and will have a little play but then eventually go to sleep without problems. The issues is if he wakes up at any point during the night then he cannot get back to sleep. In fact he just cries constantly which makes falling asleep that much more impossible.
We try telling him this, that if he would just stop screaming and relax that he will probably fall asleep but I'm not sure if he's taking it in. This will occur most nights, and can be at 03:00 to 06:00 which is the latest they sleep in anyway.
We have him on meltonin but to be honest I think it works great for making him sleepy but I don't think it keeps him asleep. He's been on it about a year and we haven't really noticed much of a difference.
Has anyone here had experience of this? Is it just a matter of him growing out of it? I understand he will probably always struggle with sleep but it's the constant crying, shouting which is causing him sore throats and is also keeping his brother (seperate bedroom) to wake up.
Also any advice I guess? Thanks!
