To Sleep or Not to Sleep That is the Question?

From the time Ash was born she didn't sleep. She seemed to have an internal clock that would wake me three times a night at the exact same time each night. When she woke she often would take half an hour to settle and go back to sleep. Sleep deprived and homeschooling my boys I felt myself struggling through each day. I was desperate to find a way to get Ash to sleep.

When she was three years old the solution finally came in the form of a sound machine. On the first night I turned it on she slept through the night for the first time in her life. I joyfully celebrated what I thought would be the end of sleep deprivation and for six months I slept like a log.

Around the time she was 3 1/2 the sound machine effect was gone and we were back into the same vicious cycle of her waking three times a night again. I thought about why the sound machine no longer worked and I began to realize I had a child who needed extra auditory input. I began playing stories on discs on a CD player I put next to her bed and she started to sleep again as long as the sound machine was playing as well.

This summer this also began to no longer work and I refused to put anymore sound into her bedroom. I needed another solution to get this child to sleep. She also seemed to not need much sleep. It didn't matter what time I put her to bed she would still be laying awake in bed until 11:00 pm. Fortunately she never has been a child who gets up once you put her in bed.

I talked to her doctor about my challenges with her around sleep. She recommended that I give her melatonin because many kids with autism don't produce enough of this naturally occurring substance on their own.

I tried giving her a small tablet of melatonin on two different nights and she was bouncing off the walls and couldn't get to sleep. I refused to give her anymore because it seemed to be making her hyper and not sleepy. I spoke to a friend about it and she explained that because kids with autism often have digestive and absorption problems a tablet was not a good thing to be giving her. She suggested I try a sub-lingual form of melatonin.

Two nights ago I gave her 1mg of sub-lingual melatonin and within fifteen minutes she was fast asleep. Last night I gave her the same amount and she feel asleep in my arms within five minutes. I held her close and watched her sleep without any sound except the beating of my heart.