Aspies For Freedom

Sounds familiar....

How can we relax enough to sleep, when the world is so dangerous and unpredictable? Anything might happen if we close our eyes.....

I always wanted a light, and I still prefer to sleep during the day rather than at night. I can sleep through a rock concert standing up but the tiniest noise at night wakes me.

In my sons' case (Sonic Boom and White_Shadow_Ninja) it is exacerbated by their great difficulty in 'switching' from one state to another. And being fourteen is no help.

In my experience, following all the tips religiously with all five kids and my grandson made no difference whatever.

Strict bedtime routine, absolutely no electronic gadgets in the bedroom, stricter than anyone I know about telly watching. Still cannot sleeeeeeep.

I would like some advise that applies to real kids, not some ideal, perfect-NT-magazine-kid-look-alike.

Creepy. That describes me exactly.

I did and do. I suffer bouts of insomnia from time to time. My boy is the opposite

Hehe, some people do react paradoxically to medication, Luke Jackson, in his book Freaks, geeks and Asperger's syndrome, said it happened to him under anaesthetic, sending him bouncing off the walls instead of putting him out.

I'm terrible at sleeping, I don't get much sleep at all without a bong before bed, always have been, and it leaves me tired as hell the morning after, for the rest of the day (just great for a 9am college start)

Trrible, being hte operative word, this is about the only aspect of being autistic that I actually dislike (what do you make of THAT, foreskin-sam eh bitch?)

xD

Apart from my hypersensitivity to any forrm of stimulants (although it makes my coke stash go further, as I need far less than anyone else I have ever met)

Delayed sleep phase onset seems pretty common amongst us auties and aspies, it used to drive me crackers as a kid, and still does really, leaves me so tired during the day.

My Father used to come home late at night and I used to try to calm him down . I was young and small and it was scary but I knew if I could get the chair against the wall an stand on tiptoes on it I could reach the grog. He could then talk to me or get angry with me and Mum and him would stop being aggressive. He could drink with me and pass out whilst my Mum could get to bed. He would not upset my little brother and everyone would be looked after. He would be late coming home. I could not sleep because I was waiting for the fight and the right opportunity to defuse it. Not fun.

I had a couple of operations last year.

I think I generally have quite a high pain threshold, but after surgery, I was in pain and the regular painkillers weren't working.  I asked for stronger stuff and the nursing staff told me that the doctor had written up the prescription for morphine and the doctor was in a different part of the hospital.  I waited for while, but when they still hadn't gotten his permission to give it to me, I got out of the bed and started walking along wearing just the hospital gown on and pulling along my drip, saying that if they wouldn't get his authorisation, I'd go and do it myself.

I was a bit rude to them.

From that, though, they could tell I was really in pain and they got another doctor to write it up and they gave it to me.  They were a bit arsey though, because I'd gotten out of bed and wasn't prepared to wait for them to do it in their own sweet time.

I apologised later and explained I was Aspie.  The nurse then changed and was all sweetness and light.  She said that they'd previously had someone else in with Asperger's who'd gone all loopy with the anaesthetic.

I didn't know about it till then.

Although I did previously have a reaction to an anti-depressant, which made me wet the bed at the age of 30-something.

I believe we do sometimes have different reactions to medications that are generally tested on non-Aspies.

When I was a child my parents used to look after me properly. They would make sure I got ready for bed in good time and I'd usually have a light snack once in my pyjama's. I'd then go upstairs and get into bed myself and my dad would come up and together we would read from a book for about 20 mins to half an hour, sometimes longer. My older sisters might come in late and disturbe me but that was rare. Basically I had a good stable family life so sleep was rarely a problem. As I moved into my teens I started to stay up later but rarely after 11PM. I never had a TV, computer, etc. in my bedroom.

I can think of one very logical reason for aspie kids to have sleeping difficulties and that would be sensory sensitivities, especially to noise. We also seem to have trouble blocking out noises that annoy us, even when they don't much bother others.

I’ve always had trouble getting to sleep; I’d play with ideas in my head--tell myself stories etc…until I eventually feel asleep. But once I did get to sleep I’d get a full night and would wake up relaxed and refreshed.

That was until I had children…

My kids would wake me up three or four times a night wanting a drink or something else. When woken (like WFM) I’m “instantly alert”…and would fetch whatever they wanted; then spent ½ an hour of so trying to get back to sleep again. It now appears I’ve gotten into the habit of waking serveral times a night--even if my kids don’t need anything.

Since getting my computer I’ve started ‘burning the candle at both ends’…surfing the net into to night. This combined with my broken sleep patterns and difficult getting to sleep in the first place…means that I am constantly tired. And this has started cause problems for me.

http://www.nasw.org/users/twoharts/serotonin.html
maybe helpful - night waking is sometimes related to serotonin imbalances.

My suggestion?

Plug a timer into the wall socket and set it to switch off at 2300. Then plug your computer into that. If you don't want it to give you the standard windows nagging when you re-start, set an alarm to go off at five to eleven so you ca shut the computer down properly. Then you can't stay up all night.

I sympathise because I am much happier when nocturnal. Unfortunately, spouses and day jobs don't appreciate that...

Wekcome to AFF!

Ooops... blame post-midnight ffs!

Welcome!!!

I always need some light in the room. Luckily I have alwasy slept where there was a hall or other rooms, so I could have those lights on and not have a light in the room itself on. Maybe a dim light is what is in order for college?