Sleeping can be hard for special needs children. Like REALLY hard. Like they are up at 2am laughing and giggling at who knows what and won’t go back to sleep. Sleep challenges can really affect parents. If your child isn’t sleeping well, you get so tired that you can no longer think clearly. And relationships are definitely affected by the lack of sleep. So let’s look at some ways to help your special needs child sleep better at night!

1. Magnesium and Melatonin
2. An Early Bedtime before they get their second wind
3. White noise
4. Dark room
5. An empty room or Cubby bed
6. Locked door (or some way to prevent escape)
7. Relaxing bedtime routine
8. Consistency and Data keeping

1. Magnesium and Melatonin

Magnesium and Melatonin can be useful sleep aids for special needs children. Melatonin can help kids fall asleep but it doesn’t always keep children from waking up in the middle of the night. That is where the magnesium helps. Magnesium relaxes the body. So it can help a lot with sleeping.

My son uses both magnesium and melatonin. I give the magnesium during the day so that he can be slightly more relaxed (he is SUPER hyper and adhd). And then I give melatonin 15-30 minutes before he goes to sleep. Right now he goes to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps until 7am.

I use a melatonin sleep spray instead of gummies because I can’t force my son to eat gummies, but I can force a spray in his mouth. I use this type of Melatonin Sleep spray.

I’ve also had friends that use sleep medication from the doctor and that seems to help for extreme cases.

2. An Early Bedtime

An early bedtime before the child gets their second wind is important because once they get their second wind, they get super hyper and even more energetic. At that point, it is even harder to go to sleep. But when do most kids get their second wind?

Well, it depends on when they wake up. I think most kids are ready to go to bed about 12-13 hours after they wake up. So if my kids wake up around 7am, then they will be ready for bed around 7pm. If I let my kids stay up after 8pm, then it is actually harder to get them to sleep because they have gotten their second wind.

A second wind happens when the child is feeling drowsy but they don’t go to sleep so then they wake back up and get even more energy.

Dr. Weissbluth, author of “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” says that most children aged 5-12 years need to fall asleep between 6-8pm.

3. White Noise

White noise can help your child sleep by preventing them from waking up to random noises throughout the night. I put a white noise machine outside my child’s door because if it is in his room, he will unplug it and play with it.

4. Dark Room

Now this sounds obvious, but it can be tricky with special needs children. My son rips down his blinds and curtains in his room. So we had to make the room dark by putting things on the outside of his window. We got an exterior roller shade and attached it over his window. Then we had to supplement that with taping some trash bags to the outside of his window because the roller shade still let a lot of light through.

This helps a lot because it allows you to have a consistent bedtime despite the changing time that the sun goes down. So my son can still go to bed around the same time in the summer as he does in the winter.

Ensuring that the outside light doesn’t come in also helps on those nights when it is a full moon. During a full moon, a lot of light can come into the child’s room, making them think that it is time to get up.

5. An Empty Room or Cubby Bed

A lot of special needs children can’t have a lot of stuff in their room otherwise they won’t be able to sleep. My son has only a mattress in his room, nothing else. He does bring a few toys to bed, but he doesn’t have a bed frame or dresser because he will push those over and play with them.

A cubby bed is a good option if your child needs to share a room with someone else. A cubby bed is like a bed with a tent on it so that the child cannot escape or bother anyone.

6. Locked Door

For us, we needed some way for my son to not get out of his room. It sounds harsh but it’s kind of like a little baby in a crib. If they could get out and wander around, they would have a harder time going to sleep. But if they know they can’t get out, then they don’t fight it and just relax and fall asleep.

Right now we use one of those child lock handles on the inside of his door so that he can’t get out. So it’s not really locked and we can get in easily if there is an emergency. But he can’t get out and run around the house making messes at 2am when we are asleep.

7. Relaxing Bedtime Routine

Kids need time to wind down and relax. Our bedtime routine looks like this: we put on our “pooping pajamas” and give melatonin. Then once he has pooped, we change his diaper and brush his teeth. Then he gets in bed and I read stories and scriptures to him for 5-10 minutes (with the room pretty dark). Then I leave! Our bedtime routine is about 30 minutes since my son always poops in a pull up before bed.

8. Consistency and Data Keeping

If you have tried all of these things and your child still isn’t sleeping well, I suggest you start taking data on their sleep habits. Each night, write down what time you put the child to bed and what time they woke up. Over time, you can see patterns that can give you further hints on what works for your child.

For example, through data keeping, I observed that my son sleeps for shorter amounts of time and wakes up more during the middle of the night if he goes to bed later several days in a row (like going to bed around 8 or 9pm). But if I put him to bed earlier around 7pm, he sleeps for longer periods of time and doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night.

Conclusion

Every child is different, but hopefully some of these tips will work for you! Keep trying because getting a child to sleep well is SO beneficial for the whole family! It took me several years but now my son sleeps about 11 hours a night and it’s heavenly!

Southern Utah Autism Conference Presentation

Here is my presentation on this subject for the Southern Utah Autism Conference. It basically says the same things as above, but it has a few more references and a few additional details. Enjoy!

Magnesium and/or Melatonin by Sage Allen