Son is sleeping on floor...... | Autism PDD
Thanks everyone for your responsed. Hopefully it is just a phase. I guess it cant really hurt him to sleep on the floor as long as he is getting sleep! lol
We may be the odd folks out here, but there are many nights when we lay out blankets...and we all sleep on the floor. My Dad calls our house a "commune".
We are all lined up in a row...38, 16, 14, 3 and 2. DH has to walk over us when arrives home from work in the middle of the night.
Dysfunctional...maybe! Cozy...definitely.
I too have found my son on the floor a few times.
Jacob was a where ever I pass out is where I am sleeping sleeper, Charlie is a rub my back and cuddle me until I go to sleep and Hunt is a I need my white vitamins and to be surrounded by things to go to sleep... though great idea about the closet sleeper.. I might have to try that one for Hunt..
I never knew it was soo common though...
My son went through a floor sleeping phase too. I finally gave up on trying to put him in his bed so I would just put a blanket on him and call it good. We finally bought him a Thomas toddler bed and he slept in that for a while. Now he is in a bid bed and hasn't slept on the floor since. I know it's hard to think of our kids sleeping on the cold hard floor but I think it was kind of a sensory thing.
Good luck!
Laurie
I had no idea! My son too went from a crib to a bed just fine and then a few months later he started crying at bedtime and sleeping on the floor! We have tons of pictures of him sleeping on top of his toybox, in his toybox, on the floor, and by his door. He did seem rested so we just let it be. I layed down blankets to pad the floor but he usually moved them. His fav. place was on the floor by his closet so after about 6 weeks we moved his bed there and he went right to bed in it. About 3 months later we rearranged the room and he had no problem. We have hard wood floors and a small area rug that isn't padded in his room but he seemed fine on the floor. A few weeks before it started we put a cross on his wall that my mom gave us as a gift and he was obsessed with touching it. He would climb up on his nightstand and touch it and say cross. I think he might have been scared of it because he looked scared when he did it. We took it down at the same time we moved the bed. It is back up now and he never seemed to notice or care one way or the other about it. This was all before dx, we were starting to worry and call him Damien.Hmmm... I did sleep on the floor very breifly, tho I was a early teenager when I was doing that. Everyone else on here seems to have kids who did that when they were younger.For me, the reason I slept on the floor was because I could not get comfortable on my mattress, for some reason the floor was where I could sleep and the phase passed very quickly.
To this day, while i dont think its comfortable, I still sleep like that when I go camping. A nice pad of foam and a sleeping bag and then im all good until the sun comes up, inside a tent or not.
I had no idea this could be an ASD thing?!
[QUOTE=woodsman25]
I had no idea this could be an ASD thing?![/QUOTE]
For what it's worth, I've never thought of this as an ASD thing. My NT son has loved the floor to the same degree as my ASD son. I know a number of folks with NT kids who went through a "floor phase." One friend at work has a son (NT) who prefers the couch to beds. She would put him to bed each night, and each morning come downstairs to find him asleep on the family room sofa. This went on through middle school.
I posted something similair a week or two ago about my 8 yo son (with almost no response). He is scared to sleep in his bed by himself and ends up on the floor many nights, unless his 11 yo brother will let him sleep with him. But for some reason he prefers the floor many nights to his own bed, maybe because it is a foot closer to his brother? Either way kids are very flexible and seem to think it's perfectly comfortable. My 11 yo has slept on the floor a lot in the past too, or both of them together. Now their beds take up more space and are very low to the ground so my 11 yo is in his bed more often.savannah went through this too...they said it was a sensory thing, for what ever reason she liked the feel of the carpet...or floor against her skin. it only became a problem when she started insisting that her sister sleep with her.My son slept on his bedroom floor for about 2 years. I got tired of putting him back into bed, so I just let it go. I talked to my Grandfather who was 87 at the time and he said he slept on his front porch for 2 years when he was 8 or 9 years old. When he was 8or 9 it was 1920 how cold that must have been. Oh and by the way my Grandfather did very well for himself and family. I decided it was not a big enough issue for me to have him in his bed.Maybe for some reason the floor feels better to them? It seems uncomfortable to me, but maybe the "grounding" helps? I don't know, I'm just kinda thinking outloud. I had no idea it was such a common problem either. I wish I had this type of forum years ago, it probably would have helped me a ton.
I know what you mean Jenny. I dont know what I would do without my forums! Anyway, its funny that we are both Jenny's and mom to Zach's :)My son sleeps on the floor by the door. I've got some really cute patterns for floor pillow/bean bags but I'm afraid he'll get poo on them. I threw his last floor pillow out bec he took it apart. Yeah, that is funny. I am completely jealous that you get to put "Zach, 3 years old" and I have to put "Zach, 11 years old" (pretty soon 12). As difficult as it was, I would give anything if I could go back to when he was 3. I could protect him from the big scary world back then and now I can't as much, and as time goes on I'll be able to less and less.
My boys have always shared a room. We moved from cribs to twin beds right before their 2nd birthday. For at least a year, at least half the time we'd come in and find them on the floor, usually cuddled together. We just threw a blanket on them and let them be. Eventually, around age 4, they started sleeping in their own beds more consistently.
Even now occasionally they ask to sleep on the floor in their sleeping bags and we let them.
Here are some photos from back in those days....
These days, she's out of the closet, but I'll often find her on the floor in the living room, or occasionally curled up in the bathtub.
At least I know she's capable of sleeping just about anywhere!
mama to Sam 8 yrs PDD NOS OCD ODD PPD and Alex 2yrs
Thanks everyone.. I didnt know this was such a common problem! lol Wish we knew why they did it! I guess I will just need to find something else to put on the floor. I have 2 twin mattresses. I put one on the box springs and one on the floor but he didnt want to sleep on either of them. I could put both on the floor but then there would be no space left in his room. lol I bought Mason a bean bag chair...he too is a floor sleeper...since I've started letting him sleep in the bean bag he stays in there...it's the only thing that worked...I pulled his mattress down and he would still end up on the floor...I bought one of those air mattresses, and a sleeping bag, thinking if he was zipped up in the bag he couldn't get out and go on the floor. UGH, he hated the sleeping bag! I know the bean bag can't be the most comfortable thing either, but I think it's got to be better than the floor!Hi everyone. Well, just recently my son has been falling asleep on the floor in his room at night, which is fine because I go in and just put him in his bed.. But then, for the last few days, every morning I go in his room, he is sleeping on the floor. So he must be getting up in the middle of the night and getting on the floor. I am not sure why he is doing this, but I would like to find a way to keep him in his bed because when I get him up he is really grouchy and I dont think hes sleeping very well on the floor! lol I tried putting his guard rail on his bed and he still ended up on the floor.. Then tried putting the mattress on the floor and that didnt work either.. Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions for keeping him in his bed. Thanks for all of your help!
This is what I did when Brendon went through his year long episode of "I will only sleep on the floor and if you try to move me I'm going to scream for 5 hours." I bought two futon mattresses at garage sales and just padded the whole floor. No matter where he fell alseep, it was a soft spot and he was comfy. Brendon has never really been able to handle laying down flat in a regular bed. Right now his bed is a rocking recliner, but hey...at least he's not on the floor anymore. I say you go with what works...and the futon mattresses and the chair are what worked for us.
My Zach was a floor sleeper too. We would check on him before we went to sleep and he'd be on the floor, we'd move him back to his bed and sure enough he'd be back on the floor in the morning. He would take his pillow, blanket, lovey and pac with him and eventually it stopped. We thought at the time it had something to do with his fear of morning dove birds but hearing others having the same issue, it must have been more than that. He was around 3 at the time it started.
It eventually passed. I think it must have went on for several months, maybe longer, it's hard to remember that far back. Funny thing, about a year ago we found he had fallen asleep on a Saturday afternoon on the floor. It wasn't even like in front of the tv, but along side his bed just like he use to do. We worried the floor sleeping might come back but it didn't.
THIS post made me feel normal again!!! LOL...My sons, both, refuse to sleep with clothing on. Drives me nuts. Not so much that they won't wear clothes but because they will use the floor as a toilet. I purchased a carpet cleaner some time ago and use it regularly...grrrrr....they both are toilet trained but still...grrrrrrr
Hey, at least mine aren't the only ones sleeping naked on the floor at night.
[QUOTE=kristys]
My boys have always shared a room. We moved from cribs to twin beds right before their 2nd birthday. For at least a year, at least half the time we'd come in and find them on the floor, usually cuddled together. We just threw a blanket on them and let them be. Eventually, around age 4, they started sleeping in their own beds more consistently.
Even now occasionally they ask to sleep on the floor in their sleeping bags and we let them.
Here are some photos from back in those days....
I'm honestly asking. I hope what I'm doing is right. Taking his bed away will leave more room for therapy time. I'm just going to sew some mats to put on the floor that we can just roll up and put away during the day.
Both of mine are floor sleepers. The 10 yo now sleeps occassionally in his bed. He tells me the floor is better as it doesn't move and he doesn't have to worry about falling out.
OMG! I can't believe how common this is. My DS just recently started this. I never thought anything of it. I just move his pillow and cover him up. I used to do it when I was younger too every once in a while. I agree with the "grounded" therapy. If I am overstimulated or stressed out I'll sit or lay on the floor. Even when I sleep in bed, one foot has to hang over the side or I feel the sensation of falling and my legs get tiggly.
So funny. Glad you posted this. I really wonder if this an ASD/sensory thing. It would be interesting to post this on a typical toddler board and see what the response it.
Fascinating! Mr. Boo is also a floor sleeper. Usually I find him curled up on
the floor with his quilt. It's a hard wood floor, by the way. During the day,
he loves to crawl under the mattress, for the deep pressure, but at night, he
prefers the floor. As long as he seems to be sleeping okay, I am not going
to worry about it. How funny, I had no clue other kids did this, too. I love
this forum!
Harriet I slept in the corner even though my mom tried different techniques. I had horrible nightmares and night terros. Mom said I thrashed and screamed in my sleep. I slept in her room till maybe a couple years ago. I soemtimes sleep in my bed but I usually jsut drag myslef onto the floor and curl up with ym dog. My mom doesnt care actually now she is more focused on me passing out ( stayign up till 12 or so am)
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