Question: My son is 4 years old and has a long term physical disability and severe learning difficulties. He suffers from chronic upper airway obstruction and hypotonia, so often struggles to breathe at night and gets himself into awkward sleeping positions. He is also suffering from chronic fungal ear infection which on bad days will wake him up screaming in pain.
We have a solid bedtime routine for him, which used to be effective. Currently he wakes up regularly at 3-4 am after falling asleep at 18:30. He is tired once he wakes up but cannot resettle himself and wails until somebody brings him downstairs. If he has a ‘catch up’ sleep the following day (which is rare), he will then stay awake much later, till 22:00/23:00, then wake up, tired, as usual at 3 or 4am.We have tried Avena Sativa herbal drops to help relaxation, massage, exercise, joining him in bed, leaving him to cry – nothing is working. We are all utterly exhausted and my son especially is being affected – he misses lots of nursery days, and his advancement/learning is slower than usual.We have had advice from our specialist health visitor regarding sleep routine, but it feels as though nothing is working. Perhaps we will just have to learn how to cope with this situation long term, and survive on less sleep!