My 12 year old dd has been sleeping alot more than normal recently (maybe the last 2 months or more). She is autistic and tbh im finding it very very hard to separate this from signs of physical illness.
a few examples i can think of-
She is homeschooled so i try to wake her up at a reasonable time but she will sneak off back to bed at the first chance.
A couple of weeks ago she was in the shower a long time and claimed she had napped in there!
We took her with us to tesco and she needed to wait in the car after half The shopping she just looked drained and was cold and shivering.
she seems to go to sleep at an ok time- she has no screens after 10pm and we wake her up about 8:30-9. So unless she is just lying awake staring at the wall she should be getting enough sleep?
It sounds ridiculous but i have no idea if she is tired. She doesnt communicate feelings well. Its hard to tell if she actually feels unwell or if she just wants to be alone.
she had earache last month but other than that i dont think she has had any pain. The most she has mentioned is a few weeks ago she said she “had that feeling when your legs shake” but again she couldnt expand on that at all.
I am thinking if trying to get her a gp appointment but tbh its incredibly hard to actually get through the triage system and all i really have to say is she seems to be sleeping a lot and thats going to be fobbed off isnt it?
Blood tests or anything of that nature is going to be extremely difficult last time we saw a gp was a couple of years ago and she hid under the chair growling for the appointment so im not sure if i am over reacting to normal teen behaviour!
for reference i have three older children who did go through a lazy stage but they would sit around on phones etc rather than sleeping!
any advice on this would be great as i have no idea what im supposed to do.