Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm puzzled. My adult son (autistic/ADHD) feels better if he doesn't sleep. The longer he's awake, the better he feels. And, when he is eventually forced to sleep because his body takes over, he feels really bad both physically and mentally - neck and joint pain/discomfort, feeling his body is misaligned and often very distressed and angry too, triggering lots of connections to past negative experiences.
Naturally all of this flies in the face of the usual advice on the benefits of sleep and he really wants information on either how to stay awake longer or do polyphasic sleeping so that he never suffers the problems associated with sleeping for too long.
To me this all feels like a very unhealthy relationship with sleep and one that is likely to be reinforced as he sleeps less and less and notices the benefits So how might I help him?
Defo needs sleep. No sleep will burn him out. He'll be shattered, weak and likely get sick cause the immune system weakens with lack of sleep. My mums got a sleep disorder and she's always sick because of this
It might be worth seeing if he can see someone professional to help with this. I think you can get sleep centres so they might be able to help
Generally that'd be my first approach. But in his case there's a deep mistrust of medical professionals that means he refuses to see them so, as usual, the problem remains locked within the family. It's understandable, after so many bad experiences with mainstream professionals, but it means it's all on us to find answers.
Mind you, i suspect that's often the case in neurodivergent families. The system's not set up for us, many of us are misdiagnosed when we seek help for problems arising from being in a neurominority and co-occurring issues like hypermobility and EDS often go unrecognised for years.