It is very common for autistic children to have unusual sleep patterns.  If they are twins, triplets or quadruplets, this may lead to even more challenges. 

Sleep troubles and autism

Sleep troubles and autism are very common – in fact it is estimated that between 40 to 80% of autistic children have trouble sleeping.  They may have trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, poor sleep quality and waking too early.  This can be due to a variety of things, such as problems with producing and releasing melatonin correctly, sensory processing disorder, restrictive diets or anxiety. 

Tips to get you started

One of the best things you can do to help your autistic twins to sleep is get into a nighttime routine that helps signal to the body – ok it’s time to go to sleep now!  When your child is younger, this may involve a warm bath with essential oils like lavender, a bedtime story or a massage with scented lotion.  Using the toilet before bed will also help if your twins are potty trained.

When your twins or triplets are older, try limiting screen and tv time an hour or so before bedtime and limiting caffeine and sweets as well.  You might also use calming music, an audiobook or a nightlight to help set the mood.  

Often, siblings share a bedroom, making it more difficult for one to fall asleep if the other is disruptive or noisy.  It is not always possible to separate children, because you just might not have the space.  If you can’t separate them, you might try putting the children to bed at different times, or having one fall asleep somewhere else (like in a parents bedroom), and then carrying them to their own bed later in the evening. You may have to keep them separated through the night as well, if one frequently wakes and then wakes the other up too. 

When my children were little, we lived in a 3 bedroom home. My two non-autistic children shared a bedroom, while my autistic son had his own room.  Doing this helped us all to sleep better. My autistic son didn’t become a through the night sleeper until he was about 8 years old.  If your home doesn’t have the space, consider converting another room such as the dining room into a bedroom – this may be a short term solution while the sleeping hopefully improves over time.  You can also look into how you can create more separate areas of the same room, for example by using bookshelves or even something like curtains to divide the space up.   

If one wakes through the night, try your best to settle them without waking the other.  Again, this might involve moving them to another room, having a drink, playing soothing music or rocking. 

What are your best tips?

What tips do you have for helping your autistic twins sleep through the night?  Share in the comments.

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