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waking up in the middle of the night

Katie - posted on 04/30/2012 ( 3 moms have responded )

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Ryan has been waking up in the middle of the night crying,for at least 20-30 minutes. We dont see anything like cuts,bruises and he doesnt have a fever and he isnt wet. Since he cant tell us what is going on we are at our wits end with this. LAtely it has been everynight like i said between 1-4 am for at least 20-30 minutes. Do you think it is nightmares? I dont want to put him on any meds. he has gone through a lot in the last 6 years, We even brought him to the doctors and he checks out fine. Any suggestions? He does have a snack before bed and we cut out the sugar and he does the samething every day bed @ 8pm but on the weekend he stays up a little later but even on the weeekends he does the samething. THANKS

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Maggie - posted on 05/15/2012

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I was having the same issue with my 2 year old. We have gotten down out bed time routine and it has seemed to help. We go to bed at the same time every night, and we don't do anything that is over stimulating for him an hour before bed time, he does get a low dose (1mg) of melatonin to help him get to sleep and I bought a white noise machine that plays all night. He was going to sleep with the noise on and it would go off after so long and he was still waking up in the middle of the night multiple times a night and saying up for hours at a time. One of his therapists suggested that i keep the white noise on all night. So when and if he does wake up he is going back to sleep in the same environment that he fell asleep in the first time. And i have recently purchased a weighted blanket. I have found that that combination works for us... right now. There is at least 1 something new or 1 thing that changes with him everyday. Good Luck! I hope it gets better for you.

Lyn - posted on 05/01/2012

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My son, Ryan, did this for about 8 years from birth. We tried everything, and found out it was abnormal seizure activity at night. He even began to sleep walk as he grew older. We thought we were the only ones to experience this. We found that he had night terrors, as he grew to talk he even would remember and talk about things we only knew or could imagine from the worst movies we had seen as teenagers/young adults (we are way past now). We had an ambulatory EEG done for 48 hours at home to find it. It was right there when we did the right tests. I joined to contact you. I feel for you and want to give you encouragement. People say that "he grows out of it.." and it is so hard to hear. I could not communicate with my son at times when it was going on. I will go on with more details and help if you want, I just don't want you to feel like your alone. Someone else out there has been through things like this and that can often make it not seem so bad.

Katherine - posted on 04/30/2012

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Does he have a routine before bed? Maybe some relaxation techniques before bed would help. At 6 they are discovering they have no control over certain things and the world IS a scary place. My daughter is 6 too, not autistic, but wakes frequently with nightmares. I know you said you don't want to medicate but maybe a little Melatonin would help with his anxiety. It's all natural.

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