Autism and the clocks changing

Here in the UK we have just gone into Daylight Saving time. So the clocks have all been turned back an hour. This means that it’s slightly lighter earlier in the morning but now it’s dark by 4pm.

You would think that just one hour doesn’t really make a difference, after all, we might go on holiday to somewhere an hour ahead of us and it not really having an impact.

However, this one hour shift in the time has really affected Edward this week.

Saturday night Edward and I were down at the caravan and he went to bed as normal. The clocks went back at 1am. Edward woke up at 4.30am. I tried to get him to go back to sleep but he wasn’t having any of it.

Sunday night when we were home he was (unsurprisingly) ready for bed really early. Attempts to keep him up any longer were futile so he went to bed. However, going to bed early can only mean one thing…yup, you’ve guessed it, up at 4.45am!

So off he goes to school. Comes home and he’s so tired he’s beside himself. He’s throwing himself around and crying. We change him into his pyjamas and he watches some YouTube and calms down a little. We try and give him some tea (a bowl of Coco Pops) but he doesn’t eat much of this. I give him some yoghurts and fruit pouches and he manages to eat those.

We out a film on (The Nightmare before Christmas) and he watches most of it which is great. Then at 7pm, he says he’s really tired and decides that he’s going to bed. I try in vain to keep him up a little longer but it’s not worth it because Edward simply does not take no for an answer.

So here we are on Tuesday morning, Edward gets up at 5.15am, so a slight improvement but still too early. Again, he will be too tired at school and come home over stimulated and cross. I hope he gets into a better rhythm soon for everyones sanity. Wish us luck.

How do the clocks changing affect you? Let me know in the comments below.