Can Music Make Bedtime Better for a Child with Autism? We Think So!

According to the Center for Disease Control, roughly 1 out of every 59 children has been identified Autism Spectrum Disorder. The disorder, often simply shortened to "autism", is not a single condition, but a spectrum of several different types, which can be severe enough to require constant care and attention. Autism indicators usually show themselves by the time a child is 2-3 years old, which presents a number of unique challenges to parents.

One of the most difficult is getting a child to sleep on time and ensuring he or she can rest well when they do sleep. Early results of a recent Stanford University study show that children with autism take longer to fall into REM sleep and spend less time there than other children. The study also suggests that autistic children are more likely to experience sleep apnea, which will wake them up several times as they have trouble breathing. But the sleep-related problems begin before the sleep actually starts. According to a researcher working in Australia, insomnia is a huge problem.

In the 1990s, Australian psychologist Amanda Richdale found that 44 to 83 percent of children on the spectrum have some kind of difficulty with slumber, based on parent reports. Since then, a growing number of studies using increasingly sophisticated objective methods — including video recordings and FitBit-like wristwatches that track movements during sleep — have confirmed the high prevalence of sleep disruptions in this population.
What they’ve found is that children on the spectrum most commonly struggle with insomnia that delays the onset of sleep. They also get less rest overall than do typically developing children, and frequently awaken during the wee hours, roiling the household. “I still remember the mother of a 19-year-old telling me that her daughter would wake for long periods of time at night, just lying in bed singing to herself,” says Richdale, associate professor of psychology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

So what is a parent of a child with autism to do? As it turns out, there are ways to help. The important things to remember is that bedtime routines matter. A lot. Children with autism generally respond well to predictable structure -- things like going to bed the same time every night and having the same bedtime "rituals" (having a story read to them, getting into their pajamas, closing the curtains and turning off the lights, making the room dark and calm).  "Calm" is the watchword. Just as adults need that time of "winding down" that makes sleep come more easily, children on the spectrum need a definite period of winding down, with minimal distractions and a focus on dark and soothing and quiet.

One of the more helpful tools to get there is quiet music or ambient "nature" sounds and there is, at least, anecdotal evidence that using either one can be a real help for parents of autistic children. Let me share one such story. A few months ago, we at My Butterfly Pillow got a message from a customer. She had given a pillow to one of her sons, who is autistic, so he could listen to soothing rain sounds through the built-in Night Owl Speakers. He fell in love with his new pillow. In fact, he told his Mom he couldn't wait for bedtime now so he could drift off to sleep while listening to the rain.

We don't yet have solid science that says listening to quiet music will help your child sleep better. As with anything, you have to experiment until you find what works for you and your child. We do know this: soothing music (most autism and sleep research organizations recommend soft classical music with a regular beat and moderate dynamic changes) or ambient nature sounds do work very well with quite a few people. There are literally dozens of smartphone apps and hundreds of playlists on streaming music services dedicated to those two things. Why are they there? To help people calm their minds so they can sleep. A child with autism who is having trouble sleeping may just benefit from the same thing that benefits everyone else. In fact, you may find it benefits them more, as it might give them a solid anchor on which to focus. Remember, focus is a big deal. So is calm.

Bedtime music can give both. It's worth a try.

(Photo Credit: pettycon on Pixabay)