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Autistics & Sleep: night-time wind down

EmilyW

Do any other autistics out there struggle to wind down for bed?

I love sleeping, I sleep well and often nap during the day, but something always seems to stop me at night. I find myself lying in bed for hours on my phone or procrastinating in some other way, and can’t break out of this stage. It always happens before I use the bathroom, and I hate brushing my teeth (though no idea why!) so maybe this is a factor? 

Maybe it’s something to do with autistic inertia? Does anyone else experience this? How do you combat it?

Thanks!

  • I agree with others. I have phases when I struggle to get to sleep. If I think about it, even worse. I can nearly drop off and wake myself before I drop off. Small sudden noises disturb me but sometimes it helps to have slow music on almost too quiet to hear. 

    Sometimes my mind goes through everything that happened during the day and more and sometimes I don't know why I don't drop off. Sometimes I get up and write things down for the morning, that can help.

    I used to sleep well if I had been late getting off the night before but not always now. 

    I try to walk most days and sometimes if I haven't been far I think that affects getting to sleep.

    It helps to watch something funny before bedtime as I have good thoughts in my mind.

    If I drop off even briefly before I go to bed I struggle to drop off when I get to bed.

    Unless very cold or windy I have a window open as being too warm disturbs my sleep.

    I also try to get up around the same time, so weekends if I have much more than an extra half hour in bed in the morning I'm not tired at night, especially not good on  a Sunday night before work.

  • I go through phases. Like you, I do enjoy sleeping. I find I need to have background noise but at a low volume. Sometimes, I can be feeling so tired and ready to fall asleep, but my mind just refuses to switch off. 

  • Can't get to sleep without listening to music otherwise I don't start falling to sleep until about 3am, which isn't good when I have to be up at 6am

  • Hi there,

    I'm pretty much the same as you described. 

    Since I can remember, I've needed some sort of noise to sleep. It used to be books on tape, then the TV, and now I play the same show/s on my phone with headphones. 

    My wife falls asleep in a "typical" way. I like to wind down on my phone and then add the noise when I feel my eyes become droopy. 

    Nighttime is an intensely creative time for me and my brain is very active processing the day but also indulging my special interests (mostly electronics and 3D printing) either in my imagination or on my phone. This is usually the first quiet period of my day so it's really helpful to process or problem solve. The downside to this is I can become energised and not want to sleep. I can become obsessed with pursuing my thought or idea or design until I can't any longer. 

    I haven't found a solution yet except as described above. I find being on my phone before I sleep decreases the quality of my sleep, which can mean I wake up less rested, even after eight hours. 

    Something I just started doing is making lists and capturing thoughts in the Notion app as a second brain. This way I'm not as burdened with trying to remember these things throughout the day but especially when I'm trying to sleep. 

    J

  • I seem to struggle to sleep when I know I have to get up early especially when I’m on early shifts and have to get up at half 4 in the morning.