Sleeping and hitting

Do any of your ASD children who go to school 12 months, experience more behavioral and sleeping issues during the summer.

I've noticed this for the last 3 summer.

He sleeps less than 4 hours a night, if we are lucky he sleeps from 12-4, most of the time it's from 11-3

No naps, melatonin doesn't seem to worko during the summer months.

Once the reg school year starts he gets better and is back to his 10-5 sleeping pattern, but for the 10 weeks between the regular school year no one sleeps.

He is 5, we've tried almost everything that we can think of and what his therapists have said to,try, but maybe as a BTDT mom, you may have something that we haven't tried yet.

Thanks


Eta: the hitting increases during the 10 weeks,between the reg school year as well

Message edited 7/26/2012 7:51:55 AM.

Re: Sleeping and hitting

during the summer months a lot of people with ASD exhibit more behaviors than any other months. I work at a school and we see our guys more anxious and impulsive, and less compliant during the summer.

Have you tried putting dark curtains over his windows? Does he have central air or an air conditioning unit in his room to keep his room very cool?

Sleeping and hitting

he has black out shades already and we have central air...
my husband is going to check the AC ducts to see why his room isn't as cold as the rest of the house.

Re: Sleeping and hitting

Yes, yes, YES!

The past 2 summers have been worse with the sleeping - not as bad as you have it, I don't think. Here, I think it has to do with the longer daylight hours. I think the problem is that he doesn't want to go to sleep while it's still light out, so he goes to bed later, and then gets all wound up and overtired and I have a hard time getting him to settle down. I also got blackout curtains, but I think I need to put another 2 up to cover every possible edge.

We had the return of a lot of hitting during allergy season. This year, I held off on using the allergy medicine to see it that was causing the change in behavior, but it wasn't. I think he was just cranky and irritable from the allergies and it brought back the hitting again, but it has decreased since June.

The breaks during the summer are a killer too, though. I find when he is out of the structure of his class for more than a week, the sleep issues and the behavior issues both become more problematic.

We have a window AC unit in his room, so the temperature is always adjusted for him, which definitely helps.

Message edited 8/6/2012 12:53:58 PM.