AWAKE/SLEEP
July 12, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Here’s an alarm clock that doesn’t mess around, either reading AWAKE or SLEEP. According to its creator, the clock works on a 4-hour cycle; by following the directions, a user is supposed to be able to “enjoy the benefits of a 21-hour day”—-which is kind of how long of a day some parents of autistic children feel they have. Yesterday’s Translating Autism reviewed a new study, Sleep Patterns in Preschool-Age Children With Autism, Developmental Delay, and Typical Development:
Children with autism slept significantly less during a 24 hours cycle than children with other developmental disabilities and typically developing kids. In regards to awakening events during the night, typically developing children had more awakenings than children with autism, but the awakenings episodes of children with autism were significantly longer. This suggests that while children with autism do not seem to have difficulty staying asleep, they do experience difficulty falling asleep after sleep interruptions.
In regards to parental reports about their children sleep patterns, parents of children with autism reported significantly more sleep difficulties than parents of typically developing kids but not significantly more than those reported by parents of children with other developmental problems. However, parents of children with autism reported significantly more personal stress than parents in the two comparison groups.
Charlie was a great sleeper as a baby—sleeping through the night at 2 months old—then, especially around the time he turned 7, he started to have a harder and harder time falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up in time to go to school. For the past year and several months, we’ve been giving Charlie melatonin, and this has helped him to the sleep regularly. We also make sure that he has good, physical exercise during the day and a consistent, calming bedtime routine. About once a week he wakes up at 5am; since school doesn’t start until 9am, we try to get him to sleep more, but it’s usually very hard and then he’s sleepy when it’s time to run out for the bus.
Naps during the day tend to make it very hard for Charlie to sleep at night and his whole sleep schedule is off. Nonetheless, very Saturday lately, he’s been awaking around 8 or 9, running around, playing the piano—-and then settling on the couch and conking out around 11. I think back to my childhood, when summer was truly lazy, with summer school sometimes and reading lots of books. Charlie on the other hand has to go to school and we like to stay busy, and he is a fast-growing 11-year-old boy, in need of some restorative snoozing. So the clock is set to SLEEP now.
Until it’s time for a swim party we’ve been invited to.
It’s so good to know we’re not alone. Youngest will rise at six every day, no later (thundering out of her room and down the hall to the family room with her books and computer).
If we’re lucky, she’s quietly in bed for nine at night. If not, she might be up until eleven and then up again at five and everyone’s day suffers for that!
My boy, Michelangelo, is almost 6. He typically sleeps well at night. We do have trouble with him waking early if he is excited or nervous about the upcoming days events. I agree about getting exercise and a calming bed time routine. One problem we’ve just encountered is that he wants to take a lot of “stuff” to bed with him. He grabs about 4 toys, some books, a flashlight, and his mobile of the planets. He reads himself to sleep or plays with some toys and he rarely wakes in the middle of the night. But sometimes he gets carried away and keeps calling me in to find some toy or book that he does not have. So it is becoming a means of getting our attention. We are considering just letting him have only two items in bed with him. We will start to prep him this week and try it next weekend. Wish me luck.
@Dana, Charlie has definitely done the same—-once it got to be so many things that they’d fall off the bed and I was called to put them on and then they’d fall off again……. We compromised by putting things on the floor.
Wish you much luck!
@Janice,
When Charlie wakes on a school day he sometimes gets himself dressed for the day and I so wish he could just go to school then as he’s full of energy and alert—and then sometimes by the time the bus comes, he’s drooping and ready to go back to sleep. (sigh)