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?
his bed maybe not supportive enough if he gets unaligned by sleeping. thats often the beds fault. he should try sleeping on the floor and see if the hard floor provides the support his skeletal structure needs while sleeping.and staying awake and longer at night is bad for me as for one at night i often think alot more for some reason and can end up in depressive thoughts, and id even probably more likely to put my foot in my mouth and do or say something harmful and self destructive. so it is better to just go to sleep in my case.