We are supposed to keep my 11 year old, autistic son up all night so he can sleep during his EEG tommorow, I'm not sure how I"m going to do that.......He can't have caffeine, and he's very into being in bed by a certain time.....Any ideas on keeping him awake, along with myself would be greatly appreciated........

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I don't know anything about your son and how severe his condition is, but does he really have to go the entire night. Could he go to bed early and then get just a few hours sleep?

How about taking him to the place where the test is being run really really early and spend the time with him wandering the halls and looking at the various equipment and trying to figure out what they use it for. Does he have a particular game or activity that he loves? Start out the evening with a marathon contest in that game. Then perhaps a long walk to see what it's like outside at night. Do things that he never gets to do. Can he bowl? Maybe you could find an all-night bowling alley to go to. An all-night grocery store or Walmart if all else fails. Just don't let him sit a car for any length of time or he will be out.

Frankly though, if he gets tired enough, he will sleep where he lands and you won't have any control. That's one reason I would plan on having him to the facility extra early. If you can keep him awake that long, then the strange surroundings might help keep him up until they test him. Also if he does fall asleep once he's there, you will have help with him. I would imagine, at age 11, that he is a pretty big boy.

Have a picnic in your living room. Play a movie(s) he will enjoy and engage him in questions so he stays awake. Bake his favorite cookies or cake. Have him help you prepare and decorate it. Make and play with some homemade play dough. Build some things with blocks or legos. Play his favorite game. Put on some music and dance. Decorate some pumpkins. Play some cards. Look at old pictures or family videos with him.
Talk alot to him while your on the way to taking the EEG the next morning because the second he hits the car and you start moving, he'll probably want to sleep. Maybe put the car radio on loud to a station he likes, keep the car cold and if you have a portable dvd player, put that on so he can watch it.

Good Luck staying up and with the EEG!

My then 7 yo DD had 2 EEGs last year , one without and one with sleep deprivation. We planned activities all night long. Then she and her dad went to Denny's at 1:00am! From 4:00am on it was tough! I did let her sleep the 15 minutes in the car on the way (I just couldn't talk anymore!) If your son is into rituals that will be the hardest part. Actually to tell you the truth, the hardest part comes after the EEG. Sleep deprivation is ugly! It tooki my DD 72 hours to recover from it! If we ever have another EEG I'm demanding it be medicated (and I'm not joking.) Picking out glue is noe fun either and there is no easy way to do it. I did find that massive amounts of conditioner helped somewhat. Good Luck, I'll pray for you tonight!

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I have a 6 year old that had a seizure on Friday for the first time. So we have to have an EEG on Thursday. I have no idea how to keep him either. After him being at school all day and me being at work, it is going to be very hard for us to stay awake.

We live in a small town so there is not a restaurant to go to in the middle of the night. Any other advise? The TV puts us both to sleep, so that doesn't work.

Video games, computer games? I imagine this would be REALLY difficult with an autistic child. My son is 18 and has Aspergers. He had an EEG a long time ago, but it was not a sleep deprived one. The autistic children depend on a set schedule and this is really going to put him out of whack!! Just do the best you can. I love the idea of going to Denny's in the middle of the night. Wal Mart is open 24 hours also.

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That sounds incredibly difficult, especially given the circumstances...

When we were in college, my friends and I could stay up all night. Let's see, we'd go to a movie or two and then we'd come home and play board or card games all night.

Also, how about Legos? Maybe you could get him a new set of Legos and have him follow the instructions for putting it together. If he already has tons of Legos, there are instruction books online that can be used for making just about anything.



Best of luck. I hope that the EEG goes well and that the results are in his favor.

My son had to have one of these when he was 5. Since he was young we went to a 24 hour grocery store and rode the mechanical horse that cost a penny! I had a baggy full of pennies, and some people looked at me like I was a horrible mother for being out w/ my child at 2 am! One of the most fun things we did was we went on a scavenger hunt all over town and drove by all his friends houses, and while we were there we wrote on their sidewalks in shaving cream and TP'd a couple bushes! (I had all of this preplanned w/ the parents, but he didn't know that!) We tried to do the camping in the backyard thing but he kept trying to lay down, the same w/ a movie so we kept very active all night. we also did the night walk with a flashlight and found all kinds of interesting creepcrawlies!

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Well.....we are now just waiting for the time to roll around for his appt. The clinic asked that I don't bring him in more than a half an hour early........We played the Wii for 3 hours straight then we went out for breakfast at IHOP at 3 am......We were doing good till about 5:30 then we both were ready to crash, thanfully that was also when the rest of the house starts getting up so, all the activity helped to wake us up. We have talked about the test, so hopefully he will be comfortable enough and wore out enough to sleep like they want him......I sure know I could use a nap

I'm going to have them excuse him from school tommorow too, so he can catch up on some sleep, with all the health issues he has going on, the last thing I need is for him to get sick because he's wore out.....

Thanks for all the ideas....I don't think I would have though of going out to eat

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

hope everything goes good for you and your son today!!

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