If a child is struggling to breathe, is floppy or will not wake, or their skin, lips or tongue look blue or grey: call 999 now. Colour changes are harder to see on brown and black skin, so check the palms, soles, lips and tongue. If you are worried but it is not an emergency, call NHS 111. In Northern Ireland use your GP out-of-hours service.

MarionSleep help for families

Autism

Sensory audits, routines, and the breathing referral that gets missed.

The short version

  • The snoring and breathing referral sits in the same guidance. Make sure night-time breathing is covered in the assessment.
  • Handed a plan without an assessment? Ask for the assessment. NICE says to build the plan with parents and record sleep for two weeks.
  • Audit the bedroom sense by sense: block out light, reduce noise, remove distractions near the bed, and remove labels from bedding and night clothes.
  • A visual timetable and social story help. Vary the order of the routine deliberately, so no single step becomes one your child cannot sleep without.

The rest of this page explains where this comes from. You do not have to read it tonight.

About 2 minutes to read

Autism

NICE guideline CG170 says to assess before doing anything else: what the sleep problem actually is, day and night patterns, whether bedtime is regular, the sleep environment, other conditions, daytime activity levels, "possible physical illness or discomfort (for example, reflux, ear or toothache, constipation or eczema)", medication effects, other individual factors, and the impact on you and the family. If you are handed a plan without that, ask for the assessment. NICE then says to build the plan with parents and record sleep over a two-week period. The snoring and breathing referral above is in the same section.

A sensory audit of the bedroom

The National Autistic Society goes sense by sense: block out light, reduce noise (thick carpet, closed doors, ear plugs), consider smells, "remove distractions, such as electronic devices near the bed and pictures on the wall", and "remove labels from bedding and night clothes". Blackout blinds cost money; a dark blanket over the curtain pole does the same job. Among the causes it names are irregular melatonin release, anxiety, epilepsy, and "social cueing problems", where a child does not make the connection between others going to bed and their own bedtime.

Social stories and visual timetables

A visual timetable of the evening and a social story about bedtime have the best support in UK sleep sources. Four or five drawn or photographed steps is enough, and the society suggests a routine "which can be followed anywhere", so it survives a night away from home.

Cerebra's caveat about the order of the routine

Some autistic children "may become very fixed in their routine and then not be able to sleep unless the full routine is completed". So build in variation deliberately: "consider allowing variation in the order of aspects of the routine to prevent the routines from becoming too rigid". Bath, story, teeth one night; teeth, bath, story the next. It protects you on the night when one step is impossible.

Varying the order of a bedtime routine Two rows showing the same four bedtime steps, bath, pyjamas, teeth and story, arranged in a different order, each row ending with sleep. BathPyjamasTeethStorySleep TeethBathStoryPyjamasSleep MondayTuesday Same elements, same length, different sequence, so no single step becomes essential.
Moving the order while keeping the ingredients constant is a deliberate technique, not sloppiness.

Where this comes from

Last checked 1 August 2026. This page is general information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child, speak to your health visitor or GP.