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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? 

Parents

  • 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).

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  • 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).

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