Insomniacs of the world unite!

Yes! Making decisions is horrible! I hate it! When my husband asks me to pick a color of a car he wants to buy I just tell him - pick the one that you like, as you gonna drive it not me. And my family also laughs at me for doing the pacing thing. They don’t know how intense my brain analyses something at the time. Incredible how much in common people have here.

I have a very similar experience with sleeping, I also can hear my wife breathing next to me, people chewing next to me is another thing that drives me insane. I too use earphones and pace around, I get the comment of, “ you’re doing that pacing thing.” It can be a project I’m working on and there is a choice of parts, this morning was buying new bulbs for the bathroom, warm or cool white, this had to be investigated, wife, “ just buy some bloody bulbs!” They do not understand.

Yes, have struggled with sleep onset Insomnia, hypersomnia, and Restless Leg Syndrome for many years. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been using a weighted blanket (£35 from Dunelm) reducing my caffeine in the morning, closing the window shutters by 20:00 to reset my circadian rhythm. Seems to be working.  RLS has calmed right down. Still have insomnia issues but hopeful this will improve over time. Oh also wearing my glasses with a blue light film in the evening when I remember. :) 

I wish I could give you some tips but nothing works for me as my brain refuses to switch off at night. I do stick to set bed time and fall asleep but wake up at odd times, 2am, 4am and struggle to get back to sleep. If I am tired during the day, I do have brief, power naps to help. I envy people who sleep all night with no issues.   

Absolutely! I often wake up in the middle of the night and my brain tortures me with repetitive thoughts that I’m already tired of, in addition breaths of my sleeping husband and daughter make me crazy. The only thing I can do is move to the sofa and listen to music on headphones. It usually helps me. Sometimes drinking something warm also helps me. Sometimes even drinking a coffee helps me fall asleep. I actually sleep well after coffee xD I have no idea if anyone else can relate to that. Quite often I go to the kitchen and pace it back and forth for around one hour also with the music and it somehow calms me down. Whenever my husband wakes up in the night and sees me doing my weird things he ask me “what’s wrong with you”. He tells me to just go to bed, close my eyes and sleep, but the problem is that I can’t. I can’t turn my brain off and go sleep just like that. 

oh-two-hundred for me just now and this poem is a GEM!

An Ode To Irregular Sleepers, (or "How to pass the time after hours")

When the spoons have gone
But the mind keeps goin'
Come on the forum
And write a poem

With the rhythm and rhyme
Of Granny by ar' Spike
Verse carries away
Into the night

Reminding ourselves
about sleep hygiene
Non caffineated drinks
Like Ovaltine

Have a warm bath
Reduce blue light
This is how
To get through the night

A cool dark room
Lights out by ten
Lavender on
The pillow again

The traffic hums
The cry of a fox
Pyjamas, blanket
Bobby hat?, socks

Don't will it happen
It'll come to you
You won't realise 
Out of the blue

.....Zzzzzzzzzz

Thank you. I will leave my virtual flat cap for any coins, loose change, trolley tokens or spare euros.

I am tired most of the time as I either struggle to get to sleep or keep waking in the night. It is harder when the nights get warmer and light in the mornings. It is also harder with children as you tend to sleep lighter and become alert at the slightest sound. My latest problem is a constant low level hum and the only source I can think of is a neighbour's heat pump. That's another thing that disturbs my sleep is having to get up to work out where a noise is coming from in case it needs dealing with.

I go through phases of different problems. Sometimes keeping a regular time to go to bed, but not too early helps and getting up at a fairly regular time every day may help. Listening to peaceful music before sleeping can help especially with words that I try to go over in my head which can help switch my thoughts off to go to sleep.

I used to find reading something like a text book could help me become drowsy.

I try to write down anything that I might think about before going to sleep for example something I need to remember to do the next day. 

I try to do mundane things before bed because if I socialise near bedtime my mind is too awake when I go to bed. I also find being tense stops me getting to sleep so sometimes I lie on my back and tense all my muscles then consciously relax them. This sometimes works.

Sometimes I can go through all sorts of possible things that might happen in the future, so I now try to concentrate more on the present and postpone thoughts about future events until they need thinking about. I have recently discovered the Google calendar so can put in reminders for future events and forget about them until necessary.

I have to say that if I ever think things have improved I then start the pattern of sleepless nights again. Typing this has made me realise what an effort it takes to get to sleep. I do long to be able to go to bed and fall asleep with no effort as some people seem to be able to do.

I used to get bad anxiety before bed that i wouldnt sleep well. A change came when I accepted, some nights, I wouldn't sleep well. Yes I'd feel awful the next day but it wasn't the end of the world. It was part of a bigger picture of pushing through burnout though.

Sorry if that's bleak! But no amount of lavender oil or camomile tea was going to save me.

There are good articles on here about sleep and autism embrace-autism.com/.../

Good morning Number

Good morning Billy.