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Sleep

NAS75657

My Son is seven, he has regular phases of either going to sleep late ten or eleven but sleeping until six or seven. Other times he’s asleep half past eight/nine but wakes at four, five maybe earlier. Any advice or strategies please?

Parents

  • This can be from multiple things.

    This could be diet (accidentally ingesting wheat will send me to sleep for hours). It could be from too much exposure to artificial light which is off-setting his circadian rhythm & could be helped by just having a halogen in his room (they're still legal! see lightaware.org). If it's only happened at various points in time, it could be growth spurts. It could also be the gut-brain axis, as we have less ability to shut down a sort of hyper-thinking triggering excitement which can spiral into anxiety and with low GABA, cannot stop this like non-autistics. Refocusing the mind on something equally challenging but also soothing, which might engage the imagination in a way that one doesn't need to problem-solve (fantasy books are great for this as are giving them a whole encyclopaedia at bed time) can help. 

    Any added context can help give better clarity.

Reply

  • This can be from multiple things.

    This could be diet (accidentally ingesting wheat will send me to sleep for hours). It could be from too much exposure to artificial light which is off-setting his circadian rhythm & could be helped by just having a halogen in his room (they're still legal! see lightaware.org). If it's only happened at various points in time, it could be growth spurts. It could also be the gut-brain axis, as we have less ability to shut down a sort of hyper-thinking triggering excitement which can spiral into anxiety and with low GABA, cannot stop this like non-autistics. Refocusing the mind on something equally challenging but also soothing, which might engage the imagination in a way that one doesn't need to problem-solve (fantasy books are great for this as are giving them a whole encyclopaedia at bed time) can help. 

    Any added context can help give better clarity.

Children
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