Sleeping in Autism

Ever since Aqil is born...I hadn't had more than 6hrs of sleep.
He's wake up every 10-15mins when put down. He's the only one we had to get the sarung swing for...the sarung swing allowed me to have that extra hr or two of sleep.
Baby cot was never for Aqil...he has been co-sleeping with us like forever. Or maybe I shouldn't say it that way...he's been co-sleeping with us for the first three years? Then he started sleeping later and later until the wee hours...
For these two years....he's been falling asleep at 4/5am...waking up at 1pm for school and madrasah.
How did we survive? Haha! We just have to...
Ariq & Arisya will get to bed around 10pm...and they almost immediately fall asleep especially on weekdays.
Me & the husbern on the other hand tried to stay awake for as long as our eyes can take...for we want to keep Aqil company. Putting him in bed is never a success....he'd get down from the bed every now and then.
We'd doze off once the eyes can take it no more. What happen to Aqil?
He'd be playing with the ipad...when the ipad is dead...he'll look for my hp to watch YouTube.
Oh yes! We know the importance of sleep...we know he needs to sleep but this is part of him. This is autism.

Don't let him play ipad? Keep it away? Well...that ipad is the reason why we can have our sleep daily. With the ipad...Aqil is kept occupied without disturbing us...in the pitch dark room. As long as he doesn't get frustrated...he'd not disturb us.
Much as we know Aqil needs his sleep...we as parents should ensure he sleeps properly....but in reality...we need to prioritise.
We need to work...we need to have that rest...we need to have that sleep.
Aqil is still ok since he's getting 7-8hrs of sleep though the timing is haywired. Hence...the ipad is a saviour to us...for keeping Aqil occupied so that we can have our much need rest after a day's work.

But recently...his sleeping hours got twarted quite badly until its causing him to miss school.
Since last week...he started falling asleep at 7+ in the morning. Then it got later....at 10+am....and later....and today he only fell asleep at 4pm.
Missing school is one thing...he's also missing his chicken rice meals. This is worrying as we can only bring him out for his chicken rice after work.
He's already not getting all the nutrients that a growing up child needs...and now, he's missing his rice meals too.

Hopefully this haywired sleep will be straightened as soon as possible...insyaAllah....amin 3x.