A good night’s sleep
by Beth
Our son Gus turned 25 earlier this month. In some ways it is nearly impossible to believe he’s that old already. But then when I think about it, hmmm. He really did age us when he was still living at home! Gus has always had problems falling asleep. And then he had problems staying asleep. As a result, so did we.
A post on Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism reviewed an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry called Sleep Patterns in Preschool-Age Children With Autism, Developmental Delay, and Typical Development. The study found that children with autism sleep significantly less than typically developing kids in a 24-hour period. Of particular interest to me was the fact that typically developing kids had more awakenings than children with autism, but when kids with autism woke up in the night, they’d stay up significantly longer.
This suggests that while children with autism do not seem to have difficulty staying asleep, they do experience difficulty falling asleep after sleep interruptions.
This has always been the case with our Gus. He lives in a group home now, and when we went to visit on his birthday, staff members told us that even now when Gus wakes up in the middle of the night, it’s pretty impossible to convince him to go back to sleep. It goes without saying that we’ve missed having Gus at home since he moved away, but gotta admit: I really do appreciate a good night’s sleep now.