Using light to help us sleep better as the summers gets closer

With summer approaching and daylight hours increasing, many people struggle to get quality sleep. As a family of autistic and ADHD we've always struggled with sleep - getting to sleep, staying asleep and waking up at the right time are all challenging.  Now, the longer evenings can delay melatonin production, making it harder to fall asleep, while early morning light may cause people, like us, to wake up too soon. 

Helping our autistic son sleep when he is feeling stressed

Stress is a normal part of life, but when it becomes chronic, it can impact our physical and mental health.  It can impact our whole life and we've been struggling recently with it impacting sleep.  

Getting others on board with diagnoses, medication or therapies

As a parent of kids with special educational needs the world can sometimes seem a lonely place.  We rely on those close to us.  The friends I often make are parents who also have additional needs kids.  This makes sense really as I have most things in common with them.  We have a little community.  

But sometimes the extended family, teachers or friends can have misconceptions about certain diagnoses, medications or therapies.   This can make decisions about how to help kids even harder. 

Gear to help our autistic kids sleep

None of our children sleep great. Estimates say between 50% and 90% of autistic people have some sleeping difficulties, whether that's going to sleep, staying asleep or sleeping at the wrong time. We've had it all and tried plenty of gear to help too.

How diet can affect the sleep quality of autistic kids

Many people of the autistic spectrum have sleeping difficulties.  Our eldest has trouble getting to sleep and our middle son had real challenges staying asleep throughout the night.

Understand blue light, our sleep cycles and how we sleep better

I've just got a new pair of glasses. They are a bit special. Apart from being my first pair of transitions lenses, my new glasses have an extra added bonus that they help me fall a sleep better.  Confused? Well if I said they had blue light filters in them, some people might get a clue as to why. Understanding how we fall asleep and about our sleep cycles has helped our whole house sleep a bit better.

Thinking about melatonin?

Sleep has been fairly absent in our past.  Our beautiful kids have a variety of challenges and autism and ADHD are among them.  This has resulted in poor sleep for most of the family for most of the time.  A few years ago, David started on melatonin.  It was not an easy decision to make or an easy prescription to get and in the end didn't work for us.  But if you are thinking about helping you or someone you love get to sleep so they can wake up to a good morning, here's some information on it for you.

WonderfulWednesday: Father's Day at Sea via @bobscartoons

This month's wonderful Wednesday share was a link emailed to me by my husband.  It's a fantastic animated memoir by The Telegraph cartoonist, Bob, of his family’s first holiday which happened to fall on Father's Day this year.   Bob's daughter, Poppy, is a happy, cheeky, determined little girl who also happens to have cerebral palsy and epilepsy.  This year the family went on holiday and found that despite the difficulties it was well worth going.

Tips for kids that struggle to sleep

None of our children sleep great. Estimates say between 50% and 90% of autistic people have some sleeping difficulties, whether that's going to sleep, staying asleep or sleeping at the wrong time. We've had it all. Over the years we've seen a few specialists and received lots of advice for our boys who have ASD and ADHD. Though it didn't all work for us, there's lots that can be tried to help children many children feel calm, safe and ready for sleep.

A sleep clinic with a small autistic boy

An estimated 50-90% of autistic people have difficulties with sleep and our six year old son, David, is one of them. A small child who is not aware of danger being up every single night affects the whole family - and most usually me. After trying everything including no blue light, weighted blankets and a year on melatonin, we were referred for a sleep study at Evelina Children’s Hospital at St Thomas & Guys Hospital in London.

After 4 million minutes, it's finally time to say farewell to dummies

No, you read that right.  It's taken over 4 million minutes, or over 3,000 days, indeed over eight years for us to be dummy free in our house.  In that time President Obama was elected (twice), we've had several economic crises, Twlilight, the Lib Dems in and the Lib Dems out, Twilight was replaced by many with The Hunger Games and we are on the verge of Brexit.  It's been a while and I cannot even imagine how many dummies we have bought over this time.  There were at least 20 in the house the day they got thrown out - that was last Saturday.

The difficulties of sleeping alone

When my partner is out or away I'm not very good at going to bed. The children tend to go to bed a bit later.  I have a bizarre dinner like cereal, or baked beans with cheese on them - if I haven't already eaten with the kids at their meal time. I watch movies - more than one.  And I got to bed very late... when I'm tired so when I get into bed I fall straight asleep.

5 ways to get sleep when you are kept awake

I've spoken to so many new parents, parents of children with additional needs and carers, whose primary issue of the day is that they are exhausted. Every mother reads about 'baby brain' as the baby keeps you up at night but no two kids are the same. Some babies sleep through from a few weeks, others a few months and despite efforts some kids need help for years through their life.

The slippery slope of medicating my kids

My boys are not in any physical pain. They are not bleeding, their organs aren't failing, they have no broken bones. They very rarely get colds or flu. But this afternoon, I'm visiting another medical professional seeking more drugs for one of my sons.

Autism and sleep: The miracle of light through a curtain

I slowly blinked my eyes. That can't be right, can it? As I came to, I realised that I was blinking because there was light shining through the crack in the curtains. Surely that's not possible? Did I sleep through the night?

Favourite Fridays: Our melatonin mission - autism and sleep

Our eldest son, Anthony, was never a good sleeper.  He was diagnosed with ASD about three years old just shortly after we had our second son David. Anthony has problems going to sleep, but David's a whole other ball game. He can't stay asleep. He's up for several hours in the middle of the night nearly every night. Given that we still have to all function, get up, go to school etc, and after having exhausted all other avenues, we've turned to melatonin. Read more..

We've introduced 'Favourite Fridays'. Each Friday Rainbowsaretoobeautiful will publish the most popular post from the previous week. If you missed it, then here's your chance to catch up.

Our melatonin mission - autism and sleep

Our eldest son, Anthony, was never a good sleeper. He was diagnosed with ASD about three years old just shortly after we had our second son David. Anthony has problems going to sleep, but David's a whole other ball game. He can't stay asleep. He's up for several hours in the middle of the night nearly every night.

Understanding autistic siblings - it's starting with sleep

Many kids with autism have sleeping difficulties.  We've been dealing with them for many years.  In '5 tips to get more sleep when you have autistic kids', it seemed that one of the hardest things to deal with when you have autism in the family is exhaustion. There are many suggestions for helping kids with autism sleep. Sensory aids such as weighted blankets, routine changes or in some cases melatonin supplements.