Frequent "Night Wakings" and Moodiness in Children on the Autism Spectrum
“My son wakes in a terrible, nasty mood. He goes to bed happy, laughing and loving. Nothing that I do can deter him from ruining his day and the day of those around him. I have tried everything to help him turn the day around - from being extra cheerful, music, ignoring, consequences, taking away privileges, talking about it, timeouts, etc... Although I do everything that I can to make sure that he gets adequate sleep (9pm-7am) he has been diagnosed with frequent night wakings. The doctors will not do anything about it. He was diagnosed with ADHD, age 5. However, I realized at age 7 that it was something much more complex than that. Finally, this past winter, he was diagnosed with mild-to-moderate ASD. We have provided countless hours of traditional and non-traditional therapy yet he still struggles a good portion of the time. His father passed away January '14 so that does not help matters -- and he has entered precocious puberty (being treated). Would you please be willing t