Freda
What is the CD freda?

This thread is spooky.

For the last 2 weeks our Autistic daughter has suddenly got a phobia about getting to sleep at night. Its really bad and has cost the family their sleep on quite a few nights. At this moment we can only relate to the excitement of Christmas, but it is more likely to be something she has seen on telly.However, we haven't manged to get a reason from her about why she is suddenly having this problem.

The last 3 nights we have adopted a stategy that is beginning to work, but cannot be the solution as it involves me having to relax her, cuddle her, stay with her whilst she tries to overcome her fears downstairs and finally take her to bed and stay with her until she thinks she can go to sleep, There are lots of tears and although she can't say clearly what it is with her stomach, she is in fact getting a notted stomach due to fear. The complete process is taking between one hour to 2 hours, which is a darn sight better than the other nights. However she is becoming to reliant on me relaxing her, and won't let anybody else do it.

The CD may be a way of helping her relax (without so much intervention by us, which wil never work in the long run).
I am pretty sure I can implement a strategy where she goes to bed and listens to such a CD and hopefully relaxes and falls asleep. Above all she has to be able to be in control and feel confident to go to bed on her own.
Medication is a no no as she will become obsessive and too reliant on it.
She is asthmatic, so I am a bit wary of using fragrances to help her relax.

Les

JennyO :-)