Sleep Issues Archives - The Autism Dad

No sleep for those who desperately need it

I've been having a very difficult time sleeping for the past few nights. Sometimes it's because Emmett wakes up and other times it because of my allergies. Last night I ended up on the couch in the living room because I was able to breathe better. Breathing better makes sleeping easier for me. The air on the second floor is very dry. I'm constantly running our humidifier but it doesn't seem to really seem to help. The humidity on the first floor is much higher and I was able to fall asleep for a little while. I'm so fricking tired right now and all I want to do is crawl into bed. Unfortunately, my schedule will not allow for that today. I'm going to drop the boys off at school…

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May 3, 2018

My thoughts / Sleep Issues

No sleep makes everything more difficult

It was a rough night, filled with no sleep. I had a terrible time sleeping because my allergies were bad. It's like as soon as I lay down, I get congested. Shortly after I managed to fall asleep, Emmett came into our room after having another nightmare. Once I woke up, I was pretty much done because I was too congested to fall back asleep again. I was lucky to have fallen asleep the first time and not lucky enough to fall asleep a second time. It's going to be one of those days where I come home from taking the kids to school and crash for a few hours. I'm so fricking exhausted right now and Lizze isn't any better off. She's been battling insomnia lately and not sleeping…

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May 2, 2018

Autism Parenting Struggles / Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sleep Issues

It could always be worse. At least that’s what I tell myself.

Last night was Hell on Earth but it could have been worse. A couple hours after putting Emmett and Elliott to bed for the night, Emmett woke up with can only be described as restless legs. He was beside himself because his legs were driving him crazy. If you've ever dealt with restless legs before, it's horrible. My Mom deals with restless leg syndrome, as does Lizze. On occasion, I've experienced it myself and I swear to God that when you're dealing with this are 2 AM, cutting your legs off seems like a viable option. Emmett's never had this happen before and we tried all the tricks we know about to help him, but nothing worked. We tried massage, weighted blankets, warm water, walking around, tensing/relaxing his leg muscles,…

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November 16, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / Sleep Issues

Here’s to hoping Elliott actually sleeps

We cut TV and tablet time off a bit eariler tonight. Elliott hasn't slept in almost two days and we wanted to make sure that the evening was as calm/quiet as possible. For part of the evening, we broke out Candy Land and Uno. It made for a nice, quiet evening. At this point in time, everyone is in bed and I'm praying it stays that way until at least 6:30 AM. Elliott's still running a fever and it doesn't look like he will be going to school in the morning. Frankly, if he sleeps tonight, I'll be happy and feel a sense of relief. ☺

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October 23, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / Sleep Issues

Poor Elliott is unable to sleep tonight

It's about 1:30 AM and believe it or not, Lizze and I were in bed shortly after 10:00 PM. Elliott is unable to sleep and shows no signs of being tired. He's still in his bed and I'm trying to sleep in mine but it's hard for me to feel comfortable sleeping if I know one of the boys are still awake. I feel like he's more likely to fall asleep if I keep on him until he does. If left to his own devices, he be on his tablet, trying to entertain himself quietly, until he's tired. The poor kids been in bed since 9:00 PM, with 10mg of Melatonin on board. He's been laying there listening to music, which normally helps him sleep. I hate the idea of…

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October 23, 2017

My thoughts / Sleep Issues

Here’s what my sleep looked like

I had a rough night trying to sleep. There wasn't anything particularly wrong, aside from I went to bed with a headache and kept waking up because of it. Both Elliott and Emmett were up super early and were the cause of any awake time after 5 AM. In the image below, you can see my sleep as monitored by BioStrap. This health band tracks all kinds of things: Heart rate Heart rate variability SPO2 (Oxygen Saturation) Respiration Sleep Steps Workouts Anyway, I thought I would share the results of last night's sleep. It's pretty interesting to look at and it helps to put into context, sleep issues one might have. I really like the Biostrap and it's one of my main tools in my selfcare arsenal.

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October 22, 2017

Emmett John / My thoughts / Sleep Issues

Surgically removing myself

I had a rough time sleeping last night, but my amazing wife let me sneak a nap this morning. Emmett woke up around 3 am and climbed into bed with us. He was freaked out over a bad dream. He fell back to sleep quickly, because he was glued to my side. I was already having a rough time sleeping because Elliott was using my pillow, and I was really uncomfortable. I ended up surgically removing myself from Emmett's grasp, and made my way to the couch. Unfortunately, my back is still not doing well and I couldn't get comfortable. Bottom line, I didn't get very much sleep at all, and I'm definitely feeling it.

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July 27, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / Sleep Issues

My body is shutting down

I just survived a really long night. Unfortunately, Elliott didn't sleep last night. He wasn't able to fall asleep and still hasn't fallen asleep. My body is shutting down, and his is bouncing off the walls. Lizze is sending me to bed, and she's going to work on Elliott taking a nap. I'm leaving this super short because that's all my brain can put together. Zzzzz

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July 21, 2017