Having trouble with keeping a regular sleep schedule.

[Metalhead]

Keeping a regular sleep schedule was easier for me when I worked a graveyard shift. Now I have a day shift job, but my body still wants to stay awake all night, every night, which is damaging my job performance.

Any brilliant ideas on how to change my body clock to fit my job?

 

[Gerontius]

Keeping a regular sleep schedule was easier for me when I worked a graveyard shift. Now I have a day shift job, but my body still wants to stay awake all night, every night, which is damaging my job performance.

Any brilliant ideas on how to change my body clock to fit my job?

Get very tired the day before, then hit the hay at a reasonable time.

I go to bed at like 3 AM. The other weekend I wore myself out (went antique hunting & chased down a 1937 telephone I've been hunting for awhile, went to hang out at the barn & worked on horse maintenance cause the weather was poor, did some exploring in the car) and I was properly tired. So I slept well. Woke up when the clock hit a reasonable time next morning.

Why sleep if you aren't tired? Get tired.

 

[Aspychata]

Agree with that. If l am not working, l can stay awake until 3-4:AM.

I thought Autism contributed to us being sleep deprived robots. My brain can just spin and spin and refuse to shut down. And if l workout, I stay awake even longer.

 

[Darkkin]

For me to shut my brain down I have to have my TV on and my music going. My brain will actively tune out the noise because I can hear it the instant my brain clicks on in the morning. A bit like putting up a window blind. The trick for me is with the TV and music, it cannot be new. It has to be shows I've seen a thousand times or a song I've had on repeat for ages. If it's new I actively listen. Like right now, I need to switch over from Hoarders to Ghost Adventures and go to bed.

Put on a movie or series you always fall asleep to while wanting to watch it. (Works as a mental cue.) With my mom, she falls asleep whenever we watch LORT. How you can sleep through the Balrog, an orc hoard, and a fool of a Took I will never understand.

Start a bedtime routine. Essentially shutting down the household for the night. Our house: Dogs go out @ 8, fed @ 9, crated @ 9:15. Bathroom routine @ 9:30. In bed @ 9:45. My phone is plugged in far enough away that I have to get out of bed to get it. I do have to keep my tablet plugged in within arms reach for cardiac tethering, but I keep the notifications turned off. Its interface is also not as fast or as smooth as my phone, so I'm less prone to browse on it. Mostly it is for reading when my angina wakes me up at night.

Regular exercise during the day can also help, a lot. I walk between 12,000 and 20,000 steps over the course of a work day, but it ramps up during the holiday season. Even if I am physically to the point of crashing, I don't let myself have a nap because if I do my brain will be on and wired for the next 48 hrs. If that happens I will end up with a meltdown.

Everyone's brain is unique, but having a routine that signals your brain to start the shutdown process it can help. Disrupted sleep patterns are very common among NDs. Trial and error is the only way to find out what works for your situation.

 

[Kalinychta]

Your circadian rhythm is all out of whack. It’ll probably take a few weeks before it surrenders to your new schedule.

 

[BrokenBoy]

Well if you want to force yourself to fall asleep then I recommend getting dr---

Oh wait.

 

[Kalinychta]

Well if you want to force yourself to fall asleep then I recommend getting dr---

Oh wait.

Alcohol is the terrorist of the circadian rhythm. I always sleep horrifically badly when I drink. Definitely no more alcohol for Metalhead.

 

[BrokenBoy]

Alcohol is the terrorist of the circadian rhythm. I always sleep horrifically badly when I drink. Definitely no more alcohol for Metalhead.

I was trying to make a joke there. But then again, this is a forum for autistic people so I'm not too surprised you didn't get it.

 

[Kalinychta]

I was trying to make a joke there. But then again, this is a forum for autistic people so I'm not too surprised you didn't get it.

Oh, haha! Sorry, for some reason I didn’t “compute” that you were joking.

 

[Misery]

Honestly it could be worse. At least it's stable.

Mine is.. pretty wild. Ever heard of non-24 sleep wake disorder? Yeah, neither had I. Yet, it's the only thing that comes up whenever I try to do research on it.

Instead of specifically going to bed at 10 PM each night, or perhaps at 6 AM each morning, well... as my father puts it, "it's like you're on Mars time".

It shifts forward about an hour or so each night. One night I'll go to bed at 10 PM. The next, 11. The next, 12. Give me another week or so and I'll be going to bed at 8 PM.

Does this mess with actual sleep quality? No. I sleep like the dead. As my father also said "we could have a zombie apocalypse right outside your window with lots of groaning and screaming and you'd sleep right through it".

What it does do though is make scheduling bloody impossible.

And no, there's no way to stop it. It does however explain the bizarre insomnia I often had when I was a kid; forced to stick to the school schedule no matter what, I'd experience periods of what I guess I could now call "desynchronized insomnia". As a kid I understood none of this and thought it was normal. Now I know better.

In my case I got lucky in that I dont have to work or anything like that. But for someone else who DOES have to hold down a job, that sort of thing... yeah, it'd be a problem.