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Sleep disorders common in people with ASD?

Autistic Introvert
over 6 years ago

Just thought I'd throw this out here.

After a night of no sleep (realistically I must have had about; 30 to 40 minutes of sleep); I did some rather quick reading on the subject today, & I'm curious to know if anyone else has any sort of sleeping problems? From what I can tell it seems to be quite common in people with ASD?

I've struggled with sleep since childhood. At first I believed it to be due to the abusive/ disruptive surroundings (& I'd listen to music to drown it out & help me sleep. Sometimes I will still do this, but other times even that doesn't really help), but even after I left that predicament & moved into calmer settings, the sleep problems persisted, & have done so even to this day.

I've had everyone; through the years, giving me their 'suggestions' on where they believe I'm going wrong. Even had a few cheeky sods suggest it's because I wasn't active enough during the day, so I wasn't 'tiring myself out' enough. As you can imagine; I managed to prove that theory wrong on numerous occassions haha.

A few occassions in the past it has gotten bad enough for me to consider going to the doctor, but he's a bit bloody useless to be honest (& I'm actually on the look out to get myself & my family moved to another GP surgery).

All in all it tends to be manageable, believe it or not.

I think one problem I have is that I will stay in bed, 'trying' to sleep, when I clearly will not drop off no matter what measures I take. Every now & then I can tell when I'm going to have a small bout of insomnia & just wont sleep 'enough', last night was an extreme case as it's been a long time since I was awake all night.

I was talking to a friend about this, & even she suggested something I was considering, which is to just get out of bed & do something productive with my time. I'm a freelance artist, so those hours would be great to make up on lost time. I didn't sleep a wink last night, & I don't feel tired at all. I'd planned on maybe having a nap during the day, but I really don't need it. 

I think most of the stress stems from me also being a stay at home mum & thinking that me not getting enough sleep will result in me being too tired to contend with my children. I'm tempted to just get out of bed the next few times this happens; do something productive & seeing what the results are.
My own little 'experiment' I suppose. 

Sometimes it's pretty obvious that I can't sleep due to overthinking/stress, but other times, I'm just not tired at all & there really doesn't seem to be any obvious cause.

Does anyone else have anything like this?

Parents
  • over 6 years ago

    I've had issues with sleep for as long as I can remember. I've tried everything I can think of. Sleeping pills wouldn't work. The best I got was slight improvements.

    After my Asperger's realisation I'm rethinking this. I can't stay still for long so pills that are designed to relax the muscles are interiores by me moving and fidgeting. I'm also looking at a proper firm mattress as I have back issues too.

    When I get my head around how Asperger's has dominated me without me being aware, and as I gradually score victories in fighting it, the more productive my day will be, leading to an easing of "I'm wasting time" while trying to nod off.

    I now have a set shift schedule. This means that I can nail the time I need to get up every day. I also keep that as best as I can on my days off or holidays. My theory is that my body will figure out how much sleep it needs with the only part it's flexible enough to control....when to fall asleep.

Reply
  • over 6 years ago

    I've had issues with sleep for as long as I can remember. I've tried everything I can think of. Sleeping pills wouldn't work. The best I got was slight improvements.

    After my Asperger's realisation I'm rethinking this. I can't stay still for long so pills that are designed to relax the muscles are interiores by me moving and fidgeting. I'm also looking at a proper firm mattress as I have back issues too.

    When I get my head around how Asperger's has dominated me without me being aware, and as I gradually score victories in fighting it, the more productive my day will be, leading to an easing of "I'm wasting time" while trying to nod off.

    I now have a set shift schedule. This means that I can nail the time I need to get up every day. I also keep that as best as I can on my days off or holidays. My theory is that my body will figure out how much sleep it needs with the only part it's flexible enough to control....when to fall asleep.

Children
  • over 6 years ago in reply to Gordon

    That's the thing. For me personally, I think this is why I'm just going to try getting out of bed & doing something productive with my time; & see how that goes. If it leaves me a zombified state for days on end, then I'll have to take a trip to the doctor & see what he suggests (as useless as he is).

    I've tried everything, changed my diet, went outside more, did tons of exercise (even lost lot's of weight), no screen time before I went to bed, listened to music etc etc. 
    Nothing has really worked, I stick to a pretty rigid bed time etc, & for me that doesn't even work.

    Hopefully it works out for you, not everyone on the spectrum is the same after all. I guess we just all need to figure out what works for us individually :)