Sleep???? - Autism Spectrum Message Board

Cord's Mom · 02-24-2004, 06:09 PM

Well I am going down this road again of Cord not sleeping he goes to bed around 8 pm and sleeps no later them 3 am usually up by 1 am. What have you tried that I might try we do melintone. Any advice would be great I am getting so tired

He is not ggod when he getts up at this time either I have to worry for the saftey of my other children. Thanks, Nicole

BetsyAnn · 02-26-2004, 10:08 PM

My son is almost 3. He has severe sleep problems. When he was confined to his crib the rest of us got some sleep. We knew he was safe and despite waking up frequently he would get bored and go back to sleep eventually. Well, he learned to climb out of the crib at Christmas. Life as we knew it ended. After a month of almost no sleep we desperately called our pediatrician. He prescribed guanfacine (I think the brand name is tenex). It is actually a blood pressure medicine but it works. He will still wake up a few times at night but it is fairly easy to get him back to sleep. Before the medicine it was almost impossible to get him back to sleep. He is also much calmer during the day. I have been able to get him to take a 2 to 3 hour nap every day without much trouble. This was such a wonderful thing. However, tomorrow we are going to start our process of nap elimination. We are hoping that if we get rid of the nap he will sleep more soundly at night. Although the medicine has not eliminated his sleep problem completely it has made such a tremendous difference. I feel like I can once again function.
I believe it saved my life. It sounds silly but I really felt that I was literally going to die of exhaustion. We also got approval from the ped. earlier this evening to increase his dosage. I am hoping that will help his sleep more soundly with less wakings.
Even though the medicine is working well, I would appreciate any sleep advice that may help the situation even more.

suzann61 · 02-27-2004, 08:29 AM

There is a product called melatonin. Its all natural and has helped many with sleep problems

alltheanswers · 04-21-2004, 10:05 PM

Hi,

Our daughter was diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD so she had trouble getting to sleep at night. This started when she was 4 years old and she's now 8 years old. For that time period, we have been giving her Clonodine - which is also a heart medicine like tenex. Of all of the meds we are giving her, this one has been the most effecive in doing its job - that is allowing her to sleep at night. Depnding on your child's age and body weight and the amount of hyperactivity and sugar in her diet, it could take one to three hours for the child to eventually fall asleep. W/O those tablets, she would literally stay up through the night (yes, pull an all-nighter) and be as energetic as someone who had 8 hours of sleep.

As usual with these type of drugs, there are a number of side effects advertized however our daughter doesn't experience any of them. For us, this has been great although occassionally, she may wake up in the middle of the night to find something to eat, but this is due to another problem that may not apply to your child (lack of an appetite due to the adderall she's taking for autism). Lately however, we had to increase her dosage as she grows and gains weight and the past week, she has slept through the night - usually falling asleep around 8:30 (giving her the clonodine at 7 pm).

Hope this helps! Of course, since this is a controlled substance, you'll need to have this prescribed by your doctor or pychiatrist.

rids · 04-26-2004, 09:09 AM

His blood sugar may be dropping-
try giving him a high protein snack and complex carbs before bed.
C-GA