Hi there. sorry to hear about your situation. I do think it is common, as many people seem to discuss it. The change of seasons is always an issue, but in general the new school year or other changes are also something.
Have you considered melatonin? a little bit seems to do the trick for my boy. He has taken it for 6 years now. 0.300mcg......not to confuse with 3 mg.
good luck!

We have just gone into Spring and he has just had a Birthday and finished up with Daycare and will start school next month. We locked our door so he couldn't get in during the night. I'm going to speak to his dr about melatonin next week

Sorry to hear you son isn't sleeping.

I don't know how common it is, but it happens at my house too. Sometimes my son sleeps for just 4 or 5 hours a night - and when he's awake I have to be awake to supervise.

We've tried melatonin before for sleep issues and it worked well for us, but then we had to stop it due to an interaction with one of my son's meds.

The other thing I've heard recommended is to give the child a half -dose of Benadryl (since this is the same active ingredient as an over the counter sleep med). One medical provider recommended against this, while another suggested I do it. Though we try to avoid Benadryl and other antihistamines as some of them can cause aggression in people we know.

I hope you find something soon that will help your son sleep.

The same thing used to happen at our house as well. I know other parents w autistic kids and it seems to be VERY common. We have solved the situation by letting our daughter know that it is ok if she can't sleep but she cannot bother the rest of us and cannot get in to things and do things she knows are naughty, i.e. drinking water is ok, raiding the fridge is not. We have also told her that if the sun is not up then she should not be either.

my son used to be like this, in fact he couldn't sleep from the moment he was born. he still wakes occasionally, but he sleeps much better now that we are treating his sleep apnea. people go into deeper REM cycles around 4am and because the body is paralyzed in REM, in sleep apnea you cannot breathe and so you wake up. I believe that sleep apnea is what causes the sleep problems in autism. in adults studies have demonstrated that the vast majority of night awakenings are due to respiratory events. I don't see why that would be different in children. think about how deeply children usually sleep. it would have to be something pretty significant to wake them up.