sleep disturbances

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my 4 y.o. is partially waking up at night and whining every time she exhales. What I mean is, she'll breathe in and every time she expels it, sound comes out like she's sad or mournful.

I'm not suggesting it's a respiratory problem. Just, ever watch an amine flick where if a character has his or her mouth open, they have to make some kind of sound whether it's "huh?" or "oh!"...

any idea of what might be going on?

This occurs about after 4-6 hours of sleep.

Have you gone through a phase of night terrors with her yet? I am wondering if this could be a manifestation of that.

It also has me wondering about apnea.

Have you asked her for a description of her night?

Lots of kiddos on the spectrum have sleep issues. Those with chronic insomnia usually end up on prescription Clonidine at night (which helps with anxiety and causes sleepiness) or non-prescription aids containing melatonin. (You can check on Amazon.com for chewable non-prescription sleep aids for kids).

Sleep apnea could also be a concern, especially if your child has multiple disabilities. My 65-year-old dad has it,, has to be on a breathing machine at night, and has experienced some brain damage due to stopping breathing at night for long periods of time.

Also, you might let your child sleep with the light on, or at least a lamp on, if she is having night terrors. My oldest always has to have light at night. He used to always have to have the overhead light on but now uses a night light.

A noisy metal fan, noisy air ionizer, CD player that plays ocean sounds all night, or something that makes white noise can also help.

I don't think there is any "usually" here for medication, and I didn't see anything in the post to indicate the child wasn't going back to sleep.

Both my kids, one AS and one NT, went through ages and phases of sleep issues, but until it is chronic and debilitating, it should be dealt with naturally. Everything changes eventually, unless it turns out a medical problem like apnea also exists.

Something like night terrors are scary to witness but also completely normal.

My daughter wakes every night, several times. She always has. I can count only a few occasions where she actually slept several hours in a row. I have come to hypothesize that she is waking in between REM cycles. Sometimes (rarely lately but moreso when she was younger) she will awaken within a dream but mostly she just wakes up as if it is natural and will find me then go back to sleep. It could be that your daughter is having some REM cycle disturbance, or just issues with her circadian rhythm. The sounds she is making could just be from frustration of awakening. You didn't state whether this was a new development or has she been awakening at night for some time?

My son had sleep disturbances all through his childhood, and he woke up a lot. He was also fatigued much of the time and that, I believe, contributed to or made worse his inattentativeness. We finally had him tested at age 11 and he was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Based on this, we had his tonsils removed. It worked. Cleared up the apnea and sleep disturbances practically overnight. He now gets a good night sleep every night. Still the same kid, but now he's better-rested. The key to this was having him tested. I wished I'd had him tested sooner.