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 dont think enabling it helps. so there should be no talking, any interaction should be a stern telling to go to bed.you should remove all devices from her room if shes using them loudly at night. it simply shouldnt be allowed or tolerated at all. she needs to learn consideration of others and how the loudness from those devices are interfering with other peoples lives. we need to raise kids to be considerate about others and have a bit of common sense, otherwise they grow up like my neighbour who has his washing machine on at night in paper thin wall flats and doesnt consider to think how it effects everyone else around him in these paper thin walled flats.once she has learned to think of others before she acts or does anything, then she could have her devices back, but if she still uses them inconsiderately you take them away again. its a lesson, and upbringing should be full of lessons like this.likely with nothing to occupy herself at night she will go to sleep because there is no distraction.but also you must think why she doesnt want to go to sleep and why she is forcing herself to stay awake.... perhaps she is having really bad dreams and is afraid of them.
I never thought about how loud washing machines were. It's not that I use them very often, but I wondered why in apartment buildings, that the laundry room had availability hours, and at night the laundry room would be locked up to prevent people from doing laundry. I guess it's because it would be too loud and annoying, and people need their sleep. And if people really needed to do last minute laundry at night, they could always go to a laundromat, where it's opened 24/7. It's just that this never dawned on me until this moment, even though I have lived in an apartment for years.