Autism Soccer: Autistic Dreams: Make a Sleep Journal

It's common that autistic kids have a hard time to sleep properly, get them to an expert inmediately.

Sleep behavior in kids is already complicated as a standalone; kids tend to stay up until late hours at night playing games, running around or watching TV. No matter the causes of the lack of sleep, kids are very active in general. In order to create a sleep time routine, rules must be set and there’s a chance the kid won’t accept them at first. Eventually, it will become a custom to sleep at a set hour at nights and to wake up early.

With the case of special needs children, things can be more challenging for parents as ASD children have a bigger chance of developing sleeping disorders at a young age (between 40%-80% of the cases). This is not only a concern for the kids, but for the parents and family as well. There are many theories to explain the lack of sleep in autistic kids, but the main reason is believed to be the fact that they’re highly sensitive to stimuli during sleep, making any noise an interruption.

These sleep patterns are hard to deal with since the reason for that sensibility can’t be cured. Treatment would be a good idea depending on the extension of the spectrum, so checking a specialist would be the best decision. Lack of sleep affects the brain in severe ways, and it’s even worse if it’s a young kid because of the fact that he’s growing. Kids who usually have interrupted dream-time develop these conditions: bad mood or aggression, poor learning skills, depression, and even worse behavioral problems.

Making a sleep journal for your kids could be an alternate solution to help them out. As the kids wake up, ask details about their sleep; if they slept well and had dreams, or if they woke up several times during the night and mostly anything that can be written down helps. The reason of this is to keep track of how often they sleep. That’s something important to have when going to therapists, as they use this information to provide guidelines and better strategies for the kids. There are some other options you can follow for the sake of your kids:

Create the habit of sleeping: Try to establish a time for sleeping and make sure the kids get used to it.
Put some soft music: Try some music in the room to relax your children, read a book for him or tell a story.
Turn any distraction off: Anything like the TV or the video games.
Avoid sugar and sweets: This is a no-no before going to bed.

Not having any sleep does no good, and leaves children tired and irritable during the day; do the best to help them out. Take them to a pediatrician to check on them. If you put them to practice some sports, their mind will be distracted while making exercise, that’ll sure get them tired when they return home. With Autism Soccer, you’ll have that covered, they do the best to help special needs children in their growth while practicing and learning in a team.