Dd2s sleep pattern is wrecked even with melatonin any advice please

[autumnsmum]

Hello everyone advice desperately needed .Dd2 has autism and is on melatonin for sleep the last few nights have been horrendous .She has been waking up between I.30 and 3.30 and then going back to sleep at 6.30 which is no good for nursery .She has also been waking her siblings and having horrific tantrums all day and night myself and dp are desperate any advice would be welcome

sorry, no advice. just some sympathy. crap isn't it?

Hi, I presume you have already considered all the usual things such as whether there have been any changes to routine at home or nursery which have unsettled her? Could she be coming down with an illness? Our DS had a horrific few days recently and really had us worried but he then got a cough/cold. Since he got over the illness his behaviour has improved (thank goodness!).
Could you try giving a second dose of melatonin as soon as she wakes during the night to try and get her back to sleep quickly?

Thanks everyone I'm really not sure what has caused it .the only thing I have noticed is that really hectic days where you think she would be tired seem to have the opposite effect and make her more hyperactive

DS can't handle the heat at all, strips away the veneer of normal and he's more likely to find everything harder when the temperature is high.
So when he was younger, it made a difference as to how cool I could keep him with fans and cold water and a cool house, and clothing at aminimum.
At the moment he's nocturnal, finished A levels and so no timetable. He's working on sleeping from around 9am til 4pm.

Going through exactly the same thing with my autistic daughter. No rhyme or reason for it but docs have given us extra melatonin so we can give her 2nd (or even 3rd!!) dose when she wakes during night which has helped her go back over but isn't tackling why its happening in first place!!!! Im totally exhausted and constantly on the verge of illness with sleep deprivation so I totally feel your pain!!
I have just ordered some plastic beads from ebay to make her a weighted blanket. Don't really know much about them....just started looking into it....but Im at 'clutching at straws' stage!!!
Only other thing Ive considered and it may be something you have noticed to, she really seems to feed off my stress levels. for example, going through the diagnosis process her sleep was appalling and we were sleeping in with her almost every night....the day she was diagnosed and we breathed a collective sigh of relief she slept 11 hrs straight and continued to sleep through for weeks and weeks!! Same when we moved house and were having to decorate her (filthy!) bedroom....day the carpet was laid and new furniture put in ....slept through again!! Im really anxious at min about preparing her for school starting in sept and think shes feeding off my emotion. : (

Sympathies Autumnsmum! The heat and light have not helped DS4. He was awake early on Saturday morning then didn't sleep until gone 10pm. We heard him at 3.30 when he was awake and loud! I put him back at 10.30 for a nap (he's 6), he protested and then slept for 4 hours. I thought that would be it and he'd be hideous again last night. Not a bit of it, he went to sleep at 9pm and woke up at 8am this morning. Phew! We don't do melatonin as it didn't agree with him, but I take him to a chiropractor every 3-4 months to help him with his sleep. It seems to work pretty well for him.

DS2 wakes up frequently during the night, but we've got it to a liveable level at the moment, with 2-4 wakeups during night of about 20-30 minutes. It's a struggle sometimes, but it's a heap better than it used to be (awake more than asleep previously!) - that's with the use of both liquid and SR melatonin.

He's definitely been worse during this heat and with the increased light in the evenings. We've really had to juggle things around to find the best solution - and we're still trying.

My sympathies to you, but I don't really know a good solution. Just about the time we think we've got some progress, something messes it up.

Ds went to Chessington with the school on Friday, so up at 6.30am and not home until 7.30pm. I was expecting him to be shattered, quite the opposite in fact, awake all night until 6am, even with Melatonin.

Saturday I had a bbq and a couple of friends round, same thing. Sunday some family for dinner and another bad nights sleep, even with increased Melatonin.

I blame long days, hot nights and change of routine. Im hoping for a good nights sleep tonight.