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Question regarding silence

LeedsStar

Strange question maybe, but my son is autistic, and he won't go to sleep in silence, always has to have his radio on. Tonight I asked why and he said because he feels lonely when there's no sound. I'm NT but I used to feel that way, mainly when I was depressed though, I had to go to sleep with background noise, because the silence was deafening. It made me feel so lonely, and I always felt sound was a comfort and like company. Does anyone else feel like that? Do you think it's linked to his autism, or generally do a lot of people feel the same? 

  • I go to sleep with the light on and the telly on. I cant bear the silent darkness, I think it's because if i hear anything I can't see what it is and at night theres all kinds of clicks going on from things cooling down.

  • I have been known to put white noise on when I go to sleep, and Whadafug could have been writing about me - you have explained it very eloquently. It is the anomalous, random noises I struggle most with, even tiny little creaking noises and distant voices from next door, and I think the stress is worst because I am not in control of the noise.Most of the time I get to sleep with my fingers in my ears, not ideal, but I have yet to find ear-plugs that actually work. My noise issues are worse when I am trying to get to sleep - my mind hyper focuses on the tiniest of noises. I think this is probably why sleep problems are so prevalent among autistic people, although I am lucky in that my sleep issues are not too bad. But I could do with more sleep.

  • Thanks for the replies. His senses are quite strong, he does have sensory issues, and he also finds it hard to turn his brain off at bed time, and doesn't like sleep time. I wonder if that's part of it. I don't mind him having the radio on, so I can live with it, I was just curious as to if anyone else had this issue :) 

  • It is possible that he has mistaken the reason for needing background noise (people with autism often have alexithymia).  Many people on the spectrum are sensory sensitive with their hearing and complete silence means that every tiny noise disturbs sleep, so having background noise drowns that out and ensures sleep is undisturbed.  There is also something comforting about it.

  • I struggle to sleep without some form of external sensory input unless I'm extremely tired (to the point of passing out at my keyboard) or on some form of sedative. I'm also very sensitive to even the quietest of anomalous noises whilst I'm asleep, and am very, very easily disturbed.

    In an entirely silent room there are anomalous noises that happen with an irregulatory that I find intolerably stimulating, especially if my mind can't easily define what they are, where they are coming from, etc. Hearing something as slight as a mild tap from a place I would not usually hear a mild tap coming from can flip me from being tired enough to sleep to being so mentally active that I won't sleep for hours and hours. Having a consistent and predictable background noise of my own choosing blocks out these anomalous noises because I know what the noise is, where it's coming from, etc, etc. Additionally I find that consistent background noise gives my mind something "non-specific" to focus on which prevents my thoughts from running off with me; in a silent room I might be so fatigued that I'm incapable of moving and desire sleep, but my thoughts will race as if running a marathon in my brain.

    If I do manage to sleep in silence, it's never forced and generally due to fatigue.

    As to whether it's linked to autism, I think it differs from person to person. In my case I would say that it's almost certainly a mechanism designed to cope with a particular manifestation of my ASD, but this may not be true of all people. Indeed, a friend of mine that also has Asperger's Syndrome has no problems going to sleep/sleeping in silence (although he is also hypersensitive to anomalous noises whilst asleep).