I am so tired, why not you?

It is 9:00pm Tuesday night and it seems like any regular night at our house except I can barely keep my eyes open an nausea is setting in as I settle the girls in for bed.  Steven is in the basement with a friend playing Xbox and Steve is on the couch watching Mitchell in amazement that he is still going strong after being awake for 18hrs.

At 2:30am Tuesday morning I hopped out of bed when I heard Mitchell open his bedroom door.  He ran quickly down the stairs, turned on the iPad and squinted and rubbed his eyes at the shocking brightness of the screen in the dark room.  When I spoke to him, he waved and settled into his seat.  I thought if I gave him some time he become tired again and return to bed.  He had only 4 hrs of sleep, he has to be tired.

An hour later I decided he was not going to bed on his own and thought I would try some melatonin in his juice.  Of course he was not thirsty so the juice sat there and we watched his favorite DVDs with soothing music, prancing zoo animals, nursery rhymes and giant stuffed animals dancing and singing. At 4:30am I brought him upstairs to bed only to have him leave the room 3x before I laid with him dealing with constant requests to scratch his toes.  The birds were starting to chirp and the sun was coming up and I thought if he did not fall asleep soon he was up for good.

I must have dozed off in between toe scratching and woke when he jabbered and jumped out of bed.  I was hoping we had both been asleep for hours and it was like 8am or something close, it was pretty bright outside.  Downstairs we go and the clock says 5:30am.  I could not believe it had only been 3 hours since we first woke up.  He asked me to play Mario Galaxy on wii but only Steven knows how so I explained we were not waking him up this early (good or bad mom?) and settled for more Muffin Man and No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed.

Eventually 8:30am rolled around and it was time for him to go to camp, off we went bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Grandpa had brought donuts and STRONG coffee for breakfast and I contemplated napping or grocery shopping while he stayed with the other kids.  I was afraid if I laid down I might not get up so I shopped, showered, took Grace to kindergarten assessment, did some work on computer and then it was time to pick up Mitchell from camp.

After a full day of camp and 4 hours of therapy Mitchell does not show any signs of what I am feeling,  he just keeps going and going like a machine.  Ironically he had a great day at camp, and no adverse behaviors in therapy.  Maybe he was just moving slow and did not have the energy to disagree.  His vocabulary was outstanding today as well.  Apparently he just did not need the sleep last night, there is plenty of time for that later I guess.  Not sure when I get to catch up.

Melatonin

I have been going back and forth for about a year wondering if we should help Mitchell with his sleep or wait until it works itself out. As far as kids with Autism he is considered a good sleeper. Many kids on the spectrum only sleep 2-3 a night, every night. He goes in spurts where he wakes up in the middle of night for hours but it is inconsistent and the same is true for his bedtime which fluctuates between 9pm & 11pm. Several months ago he was in the routine of putting himself to bed at 8:30pm. So due to the changes in has sleep patterns I wasn't sure medicating him at night was the answer, he just seems to need a different schedule every so often.

Well in recent months we have all become tired of not sleeping like normal people. Mitchell will stay up sometimes until midnight and wide awake too. Fighting him doesn't do any good, he's either going to sleep or he's not. Steve does not have the patience to lay with him for hours and if I do then I fall asleep with him and have to get up early to get Grace when she wakes and wants to be moved to another room (whole other issue.) It's just easiest to let him tire and want to go to bed, plus he gets all the sleep his body needs, not lethargic during the day at all -hence nicknamed energizer bunny.

I had heard of melatonin about 9 months ago and thought it was crazy to drug your child to sleep but have since changed my view. After researching it myself and talking to parents who have used it I warmed up to the idea. Today I called the health food store and they were out so we went to CVS & Walgreens before we found the liquid form. I decided we should try it before school starts in case there were any adverse affects or we need to adjust the dosage.


So how did it go? At 8:26pm I added 1mg to Mitchell's juice and watched him slooooowly drink it. He tossed it to the side a few times so I tried it in case it tasted bad but it was fine. With half his cup left at 9:11pm he grabbed my hand to go to bed! Beginners luck? I'm not sure but I'll take it with a smile. I'll let you know how it goes.

Supposedly it only take 20-30 minutes to set in and it seems pretty accurate. My only concern is that Ethyl Alchohol is the preservative used in the liquid form. I looked it up and it appears to be a safe common preservative. I read most liquid forms of melantonin contain this but I'll check the health food store when they get their supply in. I also read melantonin supplements have been known to stop the beginning of Alzheimer's which I found interesting because Autism and Alzheimer's have many similarities. Could it be a lack of melantonin? Could be a start in the right direction. Of anyone has anything to add about melantonin let me know.