What are your sleep problems?

[oskarandri]

Most of all people with asperger's and autism experience sleep problems? sleep problems in asperger's and autistic people are mainly caused by lack of melatonin, melatonin is a hormone that motivates you to go to sleep, it gets you to sleep and it keeps you sleeping and we people with asperger's autism lack that hormone, but there are melatonin supplements that can provide you with all the needed melatonin but they aren't as effective as sleep medication, melatonin is available over-the counter in the US and Canada but in other countries there is needed a prescription from a doctor to get access to it, your body needs sleep and if it isn't getting enough sleep it can cause loss of sensitivity of the neuroreceptors and can effect on adrenaline and seratonin and that causes lack of cognitive function, so if your experiencing sleep problems GO TO THE DOCTOR!

 

[gonzerd]

Sleep problems? I have a few. Sometimes I think I just have an out of sync sleep/wake cycle. 24 hours in a day just doesn't seem like enough, it's more like I'm on a 27 hour cycle or something along those lines. Other times it seems as if I can only sleep when I'm really exhausted. Or when I'm just too depressed.
I also seem to be able to stay up a bit longer than most of the people I know. Past year there were several occasions where I would be awake, working on something, for more than 60 hours straight.
A doctor once prescribed me some drug (doctrazodone) to help me sleep, but those just made me nauseous, and they turned out to be an antidepressant. A small detail the doctor failed to inform me about. :skeptical:
Anyway, I don't know if it's all biological. The solitude of the night has always been a huge attraction to me. But apart from that, I've tried regular schedules and they would never work. I can keep it up for a while, until I build up enough sleep deprevation to crash completely.
Also, doesn't really matter how long I've been awake for, but daybreak, early sunlight WILL make me sleepy, no matter what.

 

[oskarandri]

I can become very tired of ingesting alot of calories and sugar so i try to limit the sugar and calories.

 

[Spinning Compass]

I am going through the change so I am having even more problems sleeping as I get hot and then cold. I heard this is normal and will eventually pass. I can't sleep in noisy or lighted environments, so I have always had some problems with insommnia.

 

[juffur]

My sleep problems happen when I am trying to fall asleep. It's as if I can't shut my brain off. I lay in bed thinking about stuff for hours. Sometimes it takes 3+ hours to fall asleep.

 

[Droopy]

My sleep problems happen when I am trying to fall asleep. It's as if I can't shut my brain off. I lay in bed thinking about stuff for hours. Sometimes it takes 3+ hours to fall asleep.

I am the same. Even when I am very tired, I still manage to stay awake and just think about things when all I want to do is sleep.

 

[katcha]

I have non-24 hour sleep-wake syndrome. A day for me is usually between 28 - 32 hours long.

I'd suggest against melatonin, as it can have side-effects.

If you really have bad enough sleep problems, I'd suggest light therapy. You can achieve pretty amazing things with the use of blue-light. I'm sure a more motivated individual could provide links, I'm lazy.

 

[gonzerd]

I have non-24 hour sleep-wake syndrome. A day for me is usually between 28 - 32 hours long.

If only there was a way to make the world rotate a little slower.

 

[ajoycew]

My daughter is a very restless sleeper. She falls out of the bed a lot so I make sure there is nothing laying around that will hurt her. She was recently put on sleeping meds because her ADHD meds won't let her fall asleep. But the ADHD meds have really helped so far. I just hate giving her so many medications. She's only nine. Her doctor assured me we'd only try them temporarily and see how she does.

As for me...it takes me forever to go to sleep. Like mention before, it's like I can't shut my brain off. I'll be so tired by the time I go to bed (which is usually around 1 or 2 am and I get up at 7 to get them to school). But I think about everything. I try to concentrate on clearing my mind but then I noticed I've got things running through it again. I don't care how many times I stop myself and think of nothing. It only last a couple of seconds and it's gone again. So by the time I get to sleep...it's time to get up.

 

[oskarandri]

You'd still have to sleep those 8 hours!

 

[LgndKllr24]

I have a tendency to wake in the middle of night a lot and have problems falling back asleep. It seems to happen in patterns too, I go a while sleeping fairly well, and then I have a few days where I have some difficulties.

 

[Darth Wader]

I have the smae problem as lgndkllr
I will wake up and be hoping it is morning, then I look at my watch it is only 1 or 2 am and sometimes hard to get back to sleep, then when I finally do it will almost be time to get up, and I won't want too. then I will need a bit more coffee then usual or a 5 hour energy shot...

 

[lyricalillusions]

I have extreme insomnia at times & the only way I can get to sleep most of the time is by taking benadryl (dyphenhydramine hydrochloride-- an anti-allergy medicine). but at times, even with taking it, I go two to three days with no sleep. Once I fall asleep, I can usually stay asleep unless an unexpected noise, etc. wakes me up, but falling asleep is almost always hard for me.

 

[Aalo]

I too have severe insomnia and occasional parasomniac terrors.
My insomnia has had vast different forms of manifestation, most usual is delay in sleeping cycle, but early awakenings aren't rare either. For now I'm on melatonin, but there have been times when even benzodiazepines didn't work well and when that condition lasted over 50 days I was quite exhausted. As I've tried different sleeping cycles due to my condition I've gained assurance, that solid 8h sleep isn't the best option, at least for me.

But parasomnia terror is fun. Gladly it's not frequent nor won't it include paralysis so that one couldn't wake from the bad dream.
Someone I used to sleep with had that and it wasn't just few times that he thought me as a baddie and often I woke as he screaming kicked and scratched me, sometimes he just settled cursing me after paralysis let go. So sweet.

 

[_Josh_]

A typical pattern of sleeping for myself goes like this...

Awake for 18 hours, asleep for 6. Awake for 14 hours, asleep for 6. Awake for 22 hours, asleep for 6-10. Awake for 18 hours, asleep for 6. Awake for 20 hours, asleep for 4. Awake for 10 hours, asleep for 12. Ect.Ect.Ect.

Many variations of course. Typically I have trouble falling asleep without being exceptionally tired or taking a sleeping aid such as melatonin. Sometimes even melatonin won't work though and I'll still lay there with my mind in hyperdrive until the melatonin wears off and I get up, usually aggravated, and say "hell with it", and go make a cup of coffee, surf the internet, play a videogame, watch a movie or 3 or 4, read a book, ect and/or all the above, until I get really tired to the point of being delirious and am able to fall asleep. When staying up for such long periods, 24+ hours I have even more trouble with staying asleep, and feel horrible for the whole day until I can get some meaningful, restful long hours of sleep, which when staying up for such long hours needs to be around 12-14 hours of sleep, and even then I have a headache for the first few hours of being awake. (Sorry about such long sentences there )

I'd say staying asleep is my worst sleeping problem, and also the always changing hour cycles. being up during the day, waking at dusk and going to sleep at 2pm the next afternoon, and nearly always changing by a few hours daily. That is what has cost me most all of my formal jobs.

 

[poey]

I too have severe insomnia and occasional parasomniac terrors.
But parasomnia terror is fun. Gladly it's not frequent nor won't it include paralysis so that one couldn't wake from the bad dream.
Someone I used to sleep with had that and it wasn't just few times that he thought me as a baddie and often I woke as he screaming kicked and scratched me, sometimes he just settled cursing me after paralysis let go. So sweet.

Aalo, I have had the night terrors as well. I usually don't remember what i'm dreaming, but end up kicking the heck out of my partner. She punches back, so on the nights I do have them, i'm usually awakened by a punch to the gut or worse, to the face.
:bruised:

 

[Aalo]

She punches back, so on the nights I do have them, i'm usually awakened by a punch to the gut or worse, to the face.
:bruised:

Ouch. It's hard to think how terrified that terrored person might be at the time. I hope you don't have these often or e afraid of sleeping because of them.

In my parasomnia I just have very similar feeling to panic attack, in my sleep, but it doesn't involve seeing figures, that would seem real, in my own bedroom. So it's everything happening in the dream but I remember it better than basic nightmares. And often I wake up having my muscles all over my body tense so that they'll take quarter hour to relax. Good that I don't (probably) wander.

 

[Fox]

There are some nights when I can go to sleep easily and quickly, but more often than not I'm up tossing and turning for hours. It's been like this since I was a child.

Now that I'm aware of my Aspie's though, I recall myself climbing under mattresses as a child and trying to sleep like that, so I may save up and invest in a weighted blanket and see if that's the problem. Even if it doesn't I hear that they're awesome anyways.

 

[SUM1]

It takes me hours to fall asleep. I usually go to sleep at about 2AM, sometimes 3 or even 4. I also have to wake up at 6:50 for school.

 

[wyverary]

I have had sleep problems all my life. As a child I used to have a very hard time of it falling asleep, and slept very badly, tossing and turning; and sometimes I would fall out of the bed. My parents finally got some guards for my bed.

It only got worse, and it eventually reached the point where I physically could not sleep. It was horrible. I now have to take a Seroquel--a big dose of it (600mg)--every night or else I will go for days without getting a wink.

I, too, suggest caution against melatonin. For most people it seems to work well. For myself, it was horrible--I would freak out, thrash around, scream...