Sleepless nights!

[Lozzy3003]

Hi all, I have a 4 year old son who was recently diagnosed with ASD. We have had our fair share of sleepless night since he was born but as of later especially since the start of the school holidays it has become worse. I am putting him to bed at around 7pm but by 11pm he is waking up and awake for the rest of the night sometimes until 4am. He also has three older brothers who just won't be quiet at their bedtime and begin to run around, i don't know if this is startling him awake or if he just isn't resting enough?

I have tried everything. I have help from an organisation called home start and they keep telling me let the older ones stay up later but if I do they end up waking him up and then I have him awake all night and then I'm exhausted. I tend to go to bed at around 2am on a school night too because he gets woken up unless he is last asleep. I think I'm going to at least put the younger two to bed at the same time as this might solve the problem, it's my 6 year old who is the loudest at that time of night and starts messing around.

Have you tried melatonin? A paedatrician can prescribe it. Makes a huge difference to our 4 year old with asd, it means he goes into a deeper sleep straight off and sleeps for a longer period at first. Generally however he does wake up at 2am, 3am and 4am! We are experimenting with melatonin at the moment on the advice of the paedatrician and giving it to him at different times during the night.