Melatonin and Autism

So tonight I was asked in personal messaging in Facebook about melatonin and autism. The mother who was asking me questions wondered if giving Doodle melatonin had her body stop producing it on its own.

This is the way that I look at it. I discovered melatonin in August of last year. Before that, going all the way back to when Doodle was an itty bitty she barely slept. The child would take a 5 minute nap and would seriously be up for a full 24 hours straight with no sleep.

So to answer that question, I don't think her body produces melatonin own its own. And if she does produce it, I don't think her body produces enough of it to help her get to sleep. Temple Grandin allowed an MRI scan on her brain to help show what a person on the spectrums' brain looked like. And their brain is pretty much wired differently than ours.

I can honestly state that I'm not the only parent that raises a child with autism that uses a sleep aide to help them get to sleep. I learned about melatonin reading a post on Autism with a side of fries (personal blog) on Facebook. That was the time that I learned that, "Hey, I'm not the only one with a child that doesn't sleep!"

A few days ago a friend of mine shared a story from her area over the pond. (My friend lives in the U.K.) It was a story about a young lady, middle school age who had committed suicide because she couldn't handle her autism diagnoses. She was diagnosed as an aspie. It stated in the article that the girl basically functioned off 4 hours of sleep at night, sometimes less. It was a hard article to read.

And the only reason that I'm mentioning the article is the fact that children on the spectrum just don't sleep. I have another friend who is just about beside herself because her middle child was diagnosed with Doodle's form of autism and her daughter is showing signs of being an aspie. If you have lived in the autism world as long as I have, and you pay attention to some of the signs and have friends who have children on all the forms of the spectrum, you can pretty much spot the signs. To me it's like the child is wearing a shirt with the notification stamped on the front and on the back. Or like they have a bill board that hoovers and follows them around where ever they go.

Sleep is a beautiful thing to have and a privilege for some to get. Sometimes our kids just need a little help. And yeah I would like to say that Doodle sleeps through the night while on melatonin but she doesn't. I'm woken in the middle of the night with her wanting to play. I gently remind her that it's still dark outside and dark means night night time. She will lay back down, chatter for a little bit and then fall back asleep until 5:30 in the morning, when she promptly gets up and is up for the rest of the day.

Now, I'm going to try to get the pictures up of our spring break day at the beach. You guys will be able to see them tomorrow. So you guys have a great day.

You want sleep, Momma? That's not gonna happen. I'm wide awake.