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Waking up in the night

pthwaites7

Hi all, 

I've been a fitful sleeper for most of my adulthood, but it's really bad at the moment. I wake up at 3am feeling like my body just needs to stretch and move about. I'm too hot, even though I sleep with a light blanket and keep the heating off. I stretch and sometimes do push ups but I just can't shake that awkward, fidgety feeling. Most of the time I end up turning on the light and reading for half an hour. After that I can usually sleep, but in the morning I feel exhausted.

I've recently been diagnosed AuDHD, and I'm now reevaluating these sleep problems (and everything else in my life) in light of my diagnosis. Does anyone else struggle with something similar, and if so what do you do about it? 

Peter 

  • Sleep has been my biggest problem for 40 years. One day (or maybe that should be night) I'll get the hang of how to do it.

  • You may find the following article interesting:

    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep

    It explains how common your sleep pattern used to be.

    Have you considered doing the exercise before bedtime to see if you can feel tired enough physically to sleep for longer? Cutting out screen time for an hour before bed and learning relaxation techniques to calm the mind can also be approaches worth considering.

    Another option is to speak to your GP about it and see if they can refer you to a sleep specialist.

  • I have been a restless sleeper for most of my life, but these last three months the issue has got worse and I have felt as if something is itching inside me that can’t be relieved. I think ‘active mind syndrome’ is responsible, it’s not a real syndrome but is something that occurs commonly in autists and AuDHD people as our brains can be busy with interests, worries and rumination, and in the case of AuDHD, conflicted needs. 

    Up until these last three months, I found that a winding down routine before bedtime helped e.g., avoiding face to face, phone or online communication and watching something on TV that isn’t going to overstimulate the brain. 

    This evening I’m going to try a bedtime meditation routine that I’d used years ago and forgot about until writing this post. In bed with the light out before going to sleep, lightly shut the eyes, scan the body slowly from head to toe, not forgetting the limbs and digits. Slowly work your way through the body, tensing each muscle/s as tightly as possible for a few seconds, then relax, continue all the way around the body, one area at a time. Finally, relax in a comfortable position, and with your mind’s eye watch the abdomen rise and fall… Sleeping accommodationZzz

    Good luck!