Autistic Inertia (problems with switching task) tips?

Fascinating.

I recognize the difficulty in switching tasks - I have frequently been told that I am a procrastinator par excellence.

Where I notice it most is in my reluctance to move from one location to another. If I am at home, I want to stay at home. If I am in the supermarket I want to stay in the supermarket. The same is true for sports club and pub and was true for work.

I am training my dog to respond to an alarm and keep pestering me until I move. This is building on behaviour he initiated at bed time. When the TV automatically switches off, he lies across my face, until I get up. Now to associate this with an alarm sound and I will have am alarm I cannot ignore. 

For the first 37 years of my life I had AWFUL trouble arising from my slumber.

Then one day, my boat came in. I got work that paid enough to actually support my life desires, roof over our head, bills paid, dentistry, reasonable quality clothes, and the ability to give £20.00 to a street person, maybe once a month, and buy a magazine occasionally on whim. And if I'm gong to be proper honest, tobacco and about an eight of hash per week.

Heck I got all that, PLUS actual money to waste on eBay tat or microsoft training courses! As I saw fit to choose!

All I had to do was overcome that "waking up when the alarm goes off" issue! (then drive 75 miles to work, do my day plus as much extra as they'll let me do then drive home to put the sprog to bed..)

I figured out a workaround, and getting out of bed stopped being a problem from that point on.

Still isn't, unless I wake up in a really miserable mood, in which case I might still say "*** that" and go back to sleep... 

What Tamsyn said!  Did you realise you were being a tease?

What Tamsyn said!  Did you realise you were being a tease?

I do this too! If I don't get out of bed immediately after becoming consciously aware that I am in bed I get trapped in bed purgatory until I either absolutely have to get out of bed to meet the deadline to get to work (minimising as many elements of preparation as possible) OR some other urgent need (usually the bathroom, or hunger) makes me get up. This does tend to end up with very sudden waking movements which can be a little... startling. 

I use the sleep cycle method as well and aim for around 7.5 hours of sleep a night. I'm trying to get better at getting up as soon as I am conscious as I really do feel the effects of laying in with lower mood and lethargy. 

The sleep cycle thing has helped and also knowing that your deepest and most restorative sleep is in the first stages of sleep. Also understanding the half life of caffeine.  Oh and I'll say it again - lions mane. A meowing cat is a most pleasant alarm. Post viral fatigue irons out poor sleep habits but is most definitely not recommended. 

I'm the same.

Currently I sleep and awaken whenever the heck I want to. I'm exploring naturally timed sleep these days, because I can. Some days I awaken early and do stuff, (like today) some days I go to bed at five and awaken at lunchtime.

I erected my new aluminium access tower yesterday, set it up ready for repainting the window ledges and promptly have named it "The wobbly scaffolding of death". It's assembled right & tight alright, BUT it resonates at the period of my personal fear of heights... I HAD to get a grip real fast, as the oscillations were getting wilder and I seemed to be facing a bio-feedback loop of doom up there...

I reckon it needs outriggers to be less fear inducing, but I haven't got any. Fortunately I'll be painting with brown wood-stain anyway...

Very interesting and helpful.  Thank you mate.  Unfortunately, my life (and sleep) is more like surfing...it all depends on the metaphorical weather as to how long I can stay up for.....and when the waves are good, I stay up and in riding them for as long as I can.  Then again, I am bona fide weird.

Sure. My usual approach is to just spill all straight off, I just felt like varying the presentation style today.

What I did was, decide to get up when the alarm went off, BEFORE doing any other thinking.

In practice that meant literally leaping out of bed, and getting a cup of tea into my hands in the shortest possible time became my aim, and I grew a ninja like skill for turning off the alarm and leaving the bed super quick all in one movement without waking the sleeping G/F next to me. I had to, she complained about the noise involved with my early efforts to throw myself out of bed.

As an Autist, normally between waking and arising one desires a period of peace in order to "get your head together", but in practice that proved to be just a method of failing. The change I made was to establish a new routine, where I replaced that horrible period of "waking up and getting ready for the day" with "Immediate actions" which replaced any requirement to think and make decisions whilst half asleep. 

PLUS I learned about cycles of sleep. YOU sleep though several cycles during the night typically 1.5 hours long. IF your alarm goes off during the middle part of the cycle, it feels more horrible than if you DELAY the onset of sleep so as to time your alarm with the approximate end of a cycle. Get it right, as I do, and you then start occasionally waking up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.. Seriously, if you are looking at only getting 2 hours sleep before that trip, then spend another 15 minutes or so, reviewing your travel arrangements or preparations, (my cycles seem slightly longer than 1.5 hours) you'll be both better prepared AND wake up easier (still going to feel like crap cos you didn't get enough sleep but you won't have that horrible wrenching feeling that you get when you wake up in the wrong part of your cycle.

With sleep, quality beats quantity, every time. 

And for all you insomniacs out there, Yoga and Self Hypnosis techniques are the tools you need. I tried to teach my G/F and she was (as ever) resistant until eventually she happened on those "help you go to sleep broadcasts" Most of the ones she listens to contain embedded hypnotic suggestions and routines, which of course work like gangbusters.I learned most of what I know on those subjects between the ages of 10 and 13 whilst following my curiosity, and I guess probably seeking ways of escaping my life which was horrible back then, peak violence and unpleasantness. Being able to go to sleep on demand was a welcome escape, from the long periods of enforced boredom, which was one of the more psychological punishments I received during my youth.  

Knowing how it actually works and having the DIY skills however, means I can pull off advanced sleeping feats, like the day I woke up in an aeroplane 30,000 feet up in the air, to the sound of people screaming, immediately decided, "I don't want any part in this" and promptly resumed my sleep. (we'd dropped 3000 feet due to meteorological stuff it transpired, I sleep strapped in, so I was merely thrown against my straps which woke me up and not around the cabin, which was the source of the screaming I believe.

I can "disassociate" very well in the dentist chair or any other situation where being "in the moment" is really unhelpful.

But until I learned how to bring sleep to and end when I need to, I only had half of the toolbox...