ASD and falling asleep

[Widemouthfrog]

Ds is continuing to struggle at school and is now falling asleep most days. School do everything to keep him awake -fresh air, giving him tasks, etc. It works for a few minutes but he will then go to sleep again - sitting or even standing up sometimes.

I always think daytime napping is associated with stress, and a method of withdrawal/shutdown when he is overloaded, but I have been talking to an outreach advisor today, and she has never seen this in an ASD child!

His sleep pattern at night isn't great - about 9 hours with a couple of interruptions for loo visits. He does have nightime epilepsy and he is medicated for this, but this sleepiness started long after his medication, and his seizures are now controlled.

Anyone else experienced this? Me, school, and the outreach advisors are stumped, and the medics are passing the buck.

My son does the same. He's not quite four yet admitedly but I've seen the circumstances in which he does it out of school and I know why he does it at school (mercifully only occasionally). I've told them but they keep on with referring to him as getting tired. I've explained that if he was tired then a micro-nap of five minutes would not be followed by a perfectly happy awakening, the usual winding jog home and then four more hours of action before bed!

janine

Yes, exactly as I thought. He does go into a really deep sleep though for about an hour. I also keep saying to school that he is wide awake when he gets home and stays wide awake until bedtime, then still rises early next morning full of beans.

I want them to realise this is overload and not a medical problem.

My 6 year old does this, and often used to fall asleep during carpet time in reception year. Definately sensory overload.
He now does it during lunch at school, and is full of (too much) energy until bedtime (and beyond). My 4 year old does this at school, but they let him go to the sensory room, where he can have a nap if he likes, but he goes to a special school, so they are a bitmore understanding, and is quite common amongst the kids there.
Interestingly my dh can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and with cup of tea in hand which I have to rescue, long suspected he has asd traits.

Thanks Deeja. DS is falling asleep before lunch and then sleeping through lunchtime on the beanbags in the library.I thought he wouldn't be the only one .
School ar fixated on his epilepsy medication being the cause. I am seeing the neurologist next week, so hopefully he can back me up that is overload due to his autism.

My nearly 4 year old does this at nursery. He falls asleep at nursery at least twice a week. I've just always assumed that it was because he is immature (developmentally) and so just needs naps like a younger child does.

Ds used to do this all the time when he first started school. I know it was definitely due to everything being too much for him because I'd often seen him do the same thing in other stressful situations like kids' parties. Luckily his teacher agreed and his hours were cut right back and then increased gradually over a couple of terms as he learned to cope better. He was ok after that.

DS2 (asd)used to do this all the time in nursery during story time - they used to give him a pillow for his head! Now all you have to do is get him warm and cosy and off he goes! Yep, I also think it's sensory overload, a possibly, inconvenient (at times!) but clever way of chilling out!

Interestingly mumslife, DP, my sister, my dad are all great nappers - which is annoying because I'm the opposite!

I do too if I get overloaded. I find its a good thing. When I wake up I feel SO SO much better!

Come round and tidy our house please! I watched the film "Snowcake" with DH, and he said "typical, I get the one Aspie who isn't a neat freak!!

My DS isn't a neat freak either MaryBS. He has to throw everything about - I wish he would line something up every now and agin

Thanks for all your responses. I think I may quote some of you to school (anonymously of course).

rem sleep is used by the body to assist in converting short term memory to long term.

in example its the equivlent o writing page data from ram to the hdd in a pc to ree up space.

while i can get by without it i just tend to space out when doing any task thats monotonous

so yea, asperger+nap= ;)

I like the analogy wraith. Thanks

I had a nap this afternoon. This morning had been really stressful, and I was really tearful. After a nap I felt much better.

neat freak..... no no no
this aspergers lives on there own, (bearly) and isnt bothered about general neatness
oddly though important possession arein new condition

wide mouth frog :my mind works better adapting nebulous ideas to something concrete and relaible, hence the pc analogys

Aw, well I don't have OCD, so perhaps that's it .