This may or may not ruffle some feathers, but is it critical that your child (or anyone's child) sleeps in a bed? Sometimes our daughter wants to be "in her cave", which right now, is usually the bottom of her closet.

We cleared out her closet completely, and we tend to cover the (carpeted) floor with some blankets and add some pillows. Personally, I don't care for the close quarters, but it is clean and safe, and my daughter loves it.

Sometimes after school, she wants to go into her cave. She likes the tight space as well as the sounds of her cave. She can decompress there, and sometimes to close the doors and hide in her own, very controlled space, and it is quiet in there most of the time.

Several times recently we have entered her room and she is missing from her bed. When this happens, we go across the room, and find her in her closet-- playing or sleeping.

Our situation is a little different because our child has no light perception, so closing the doors changes the sound (and don't worry, it isn't air-tight by any means), but this has no effect on her as far as putting herself in the dark.

I suspect when our kids want to go and sleep (or just sit and play) in a particular place, they are getting something from the change.

We know our daughter likes things joint compression and having heavy things on top of her (we've never tried a weighted blanket, but she will pile many blankets on herself, or a pile of pillows, stuffed animals, etc.). She used to like to be wrapped up tightly in blankets, or "Wound up" so tightly in a soft cloth swing that I was concerned she would get hurt, but she would ask to have it tighter and tighter.

"Caves" offer her some comfort, as does certain physical stimulation. She actually seeks out caves-- empty closets at her grandparents. The same on vacation in hotels, for example. When she visits friends, she will talk them into playing with her in their closets in their own rooms.

My point here is that where our daughter wants to sleep and play, and HOW she wants to do these things is heavily driven by sensory needs. If we want to get our ASD kids to sleep in their beds, or just to make them comfortable and calm, it probably makes sense to see how to get their "sensory diet" as fully as possible. If you have problems and want to keep your child sleeping in a bed, maybe you can find out what your child seeks when getting out of bed and add that stimulus back into their bed to some degree.

I agree with Dave. I'll just add that we took almost everything out of their rooms. No toys, just a few books and that was it. Also, we have up on turning off the light because it became a game for one of them. We let him fall asleep with the light on and turned it off once he was asleep. We also didn't get bent out of shape about where he chose to fall asleep. For about a week he slept on the heating vent, then just on the floor. We just picked him and put him nex once he fell asleep. After a few weeks he decided it was more comfortable to just sleep on the bed but apparently it had to be his idea. :)

His first night in a regular bed, my son was drunk with power. He got up more than 80 times (we counted). Each time he tried to leave the room, we walked him back to bed, without comment, and with as little interaction as possible.

The next night it was only twenty times or so, and by the end of the week, he was staying in bed. Here are the tips that we found useful:

1. The first time he got up, we told him it was time for bed, and took him back to bed. Each time after that, we just took him back to bed without talking.

2. If he turned the light on, we simply turned it back off. We were careful not to make eye contact, or to interact with anything he tried to do.

3. If he got out of bed, but stayed in his room, we did not put him back in bed, we just let him wear himself down. We allowed him to play with toys, but only if he played in bed. If he took a toy from the counter, we put the toy in bed, without talking.

4. You have to be more stubborn than the child. If they get up 104 times, you have to be prepared to walk him back to bed 105 times. Once they realize there is no reward for staying up, it removes the motivation.

This may not work for everyone, but it worked pretty well for us.

Seems like the bigger question might be what sort of trouble the child could actually get into by getting out of bed. (Every home is different.)

We can't keep our child in bed and on a proper schedule for anything. (The reasons are fairly complex, not just ASD-related.) When she was younger, I kept a camera aimed at her and a monitor in our bedroom so we could check and see what she was going at a glance anything during the night.

We do a lot to keep items of concern out of reach in case she gets up at night and we don't hear her. We also go to fairly substantial effort to be certain she cannot leave the house in the middle of the night.

At some point, a crib just won't work, so you'll need to either monitor that your child stays in a safe place or remove potential dangers.

Sorry - we had to *give up* on turning off the light