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3 y.o Autistic Daughter Not Staying Asleep at Night

NAS89644

Hello All,

I write this post in hopes that someone else may be dealing with what we currently are or had dealt with this in the past and has some great advice to share.

My daughter is 3 years old, had been diagnoses with high functioning autism for a while now. For the last 3 weeks she has been waking up numerous times at night sometimes freaking out, sometimes crying or just overall laughing and wanting to play. We have tried literally EVERYTHING to try and help her stay asleep or to encourage good sleep. We have done the following:

1. no electronics or tv

2. no stimulating activities

3. no lights or anything to cause her to be stimulated

4. no eating or drinking 30-45 minutes before bed. 

5. took as many distractions away from her room as possible and not have it crowded or cluttered.

No matter what my husband I have done, nothing helps. Has anyone found anything that may have worked for their child? any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to try advice before requesting for a sleep test. Thank you.

  • There's research that ADHD and Autistic children have less GABA, which is the gut-brain axis. It's responsible for shutting down excitement (which is the other side of the coin to anxiety). Think of GABA like a resistance unit to break up the house party in the brain. And autistic / ADHD thinkers, who are Monotropic, can be problem solvers, driven toward resolution. We don't look for patterns, we just see them. We might (hypothetically) accidentally notice a "system of exchange" at the young age of 3 between 2 humans, like someone saying a thing they don't mean and the other responding just as mysteriously, and this subtle interaction can be profoundly puzzling to the degree we might think about it at 35 and start looking for the answers in the psychology section of a library for weeks on end. From math to quantum physics, puzzling things will keep us awake. And I was one of those who couldn't access the words to describe what I could plainly see happening. Having a rich and wild imagination with out the ability to open the dictionary and identify a thing was the cause for a great amount of stress from childhood. 

    Being read to can help going to sleep - especially books without pictures. A chapter of old story books from classic writers can help, they help stimulate the imagination in soothing ways, so it not only outweighs the days riddles we cannot solve, but helps promote a sense of calm, with bigger words that embody a wealth of meaning and fill up with the imagination in ways we want to play and dream there. 

    But I'd agree to have a corner with puzzles and things she can safely engage with if she wakes up. Perhaps on a Flokati rug she can fall asleep and stay warm on.

    And I would also suggest a halogen overhead in her bedroom as blue light from LEDs wake the system up for hours. Middle of the night, rock salt lamps can diffuse an LED to where it's not causing a 'problem-solving' or aggravating reaction. It's not a natural light source and for highly sensitive kids, it can cause low-grade anxiety to our innate human senses beyond our control or below our conscious reasoning. 

    Music is also helpful!! But with music, you'll need to be mindful of the speaker it's coming out of, sometimes the cheaply made items are aggravating to listen to. Basically, you might want to stimulate her with things she can embrace and deeply engage with which are more engaging than things which might be unresolved. An analogy I've thought about is the Sled Dog, who's just barking non-stop until you harness it to a sled and allow it to run. 

  • in reply to Martin

    That's interesting, Thank you for letting me know! unfortunetly, She is nonverbal and is difficult to teach her to read. Thank you for your response!

  • I'm afraid my autistic daughter did not sleep through the night more times a week than she did not, until she was four. Once she could amuse herself by reading, if she woke up, it became much better. We did not come up with any effective work arounds.