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Insomnia and nightmares

Tryingmum

My 10 year old with ASD has always been a deep thinker but in the past few years (since COVID) this has affected her sleep waking her at around 3am scared and unable to get back to sleep without me or her dad with her. This has worsened to the point where over the past 6 months and particularly since September returning to school she wakes every night and is awake for 2-3 hours at a time displaying genuine fear that we may die or she may get attacked by murderers. She now makes us check her room before she goes to bed then ultimately ends up in our bed otherwise she simply won't sleep at all and after spending two weeks trying to keep her in her own room and sleeping on her floor whilst she just stared into space for the sake of all of us and her developing hallucinations from sleep deprivation we have resigned ourselves to the fact she will arrive in our room at some point and stay. This is far from ideal but with a spare bed in the room it is manageable. She is also going through puberty and I am convinced this is adding to this issue. Are there any others who have experienced this issue and did it come to a natural conclusion as I do not want her to create a habit that she cannot sleep without us but equally she is so scared I cannot just push her out. She has seen a GP and now takes melatonin before bed but it isn't stopping her from waking. She also has had a counsellor for a year but it's gotten worse over that time. Thank you. 

  • I'm new here and this is my first post (I'm recently late diagnosed ASD Level 2 at age 56 and my son was diagnosed a few years ago). To your question, yes my son had this too around the same age. I don't know if it was puberty, as there were also a lot of other things to be anxious about including COVID, or being bullied, feeling socially isolated, etc. and it also turned out to be diet related. In my experience there's always a trigger to behavioral things, including sleep disorders. My son's sleep issues were a combination of things, and definitely anxiety from his environment, but it was only when I changed his diet (no dairy, gluten, corn) that he started to sleep again through the night. Also, I made the choice to sleep in the same bed as him because that meant we both would get a good nights sleep, and that was more important to me than worrying about creating a habit. My entire family was against this decision and told me it was wrong, but I went with my intuition. He's 15 now, and sleeps by himself, but I still have to lie with him until he falls asleep in his bed, and then I creep out and sleep in my own bed. So yes, I think it will come to a natural conclusion, but you might have to make some changes and figure out what the triggers are. My son is generally very fearful and anxious, and I do everything I can including using essential oils like lavender in a diffuser, and giving him a massage to help him relax. I also find when he exercises aerobically (jogging or swimming lengths) then he sleeps better and is less anxious. But changing the diet was key. One more thing: I keep my son away from tech as much as possible, because this definitely made his sleep stuff worse. I hope this helps and your daughter gets the love and support she needs to thrive. We didn't find melatonin helpful, and unless the counselor is near-affirmative and autism trained, we found that pretty useless also.