The importance of sleep

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That's funny because the most reliable indicator I have as to when I've slept too long is that my dreams start to get VERY disturbing. At that point I usually get out of bed. It seems to take 12-14 hours of sleep for that to happen to me, which is not uncommon for me since I got fired and haven't had a reason to get up early.

I just cannot seem to get myself to have a normal sleep schedule though. Lately I"ve been trying to get myself up earlier...I'm down to like noon now, but even getting up this early I'll probably still be awake until 4am tonight. My brain won't even wake up and start to really rev up until at least 10pm most nights. When I was working I would often just float through the day at work mostly on autopilot (unless there was an emergency..that usually woke me up) and then I'd come home and do my work from home at night.

Other sleep tips:

Use your bed only for sleeping - nothing else including reading, t.v., etc. Get your body/mind to know that when it hits the bed, its sleep time

If you arent tired, dont try and sleep - Go and watch t.v. or read in another room until you feel tired.. Freaking out about how you're not sleeping will actually keep you up longer

Diet? Are you eatting ok? Getting enough exercise?

Getting too little or too much sleep is problematic for me physically and mentally. It's a problem that's more complex that it sounds. You have to readjust yourself to the proper amount of sleep and figure out how to fit that readjustment into your daily schedule, which includes school and work. My Psychology professor said that in the army they standardize sleep to six hours a night. That's not much, and after weeks of sleeping nine hours a night, it would at first feel like I was getting too little sleep, but, I would like to minimize my sleep to six hours a night anyway, so that I can still get the right sleep I need and stay on a consistent sleeping schedule even when, say, I have to work late or do a lot of homework or studying on a particular night.

Someone else here made a post that said they felt less depressed when they slept less than usual. According to Wikipedia,

NS was hell. I was in OCS (Officer Cadet School) initially and the constant close contact with other people plus sleep deprivation meant that I was on the verge of breaking down. I have argued with a lot of people that Aspies should not be required to serve in a combat vocation; or at least we should not be put through something like OCS. It is not that I do not wish to lead, but I cannot envisage myself going through 9 months of getting only very eratic sleep.

I was downgraded to non-combat fit status for marginal reasons. Serving as a clerk was not any easier as I did not do what other did and find a clique that could protect me. Being in the military is a bit like being in prison, there are all sorts of unwritten rules and you do need to know which side of the internal divide you belong to.

I tried for a while to lobby for change in the way Singapore views Asperger Syndrome. But as you may know, Aspies actually do quite well in our academically intense education system. Unlike in the United States, jocks are not celebrated in Singapore. We value the geeks who can score straight "A"s. Many Aspies are academically talented and because of their academic achievements, their lack of social development is often overlooked. The result is that even kids who may exhibit obvious signs of autism may be tracked into the military as combat officers. Even if these kids survive OCS, I am very doubtful if we should want an Aspie to lead men into battle.

exactly! i often stated that it may be because of our education system that alot of aspies get overlooked. not just our education system. our very culture.

i myself went to a pretty good school. but i always knew i was different, i understood things differently. work and not knowing which side is the 'right' side often made me confused. i guess being female helped me alot in that i could 'dumb down' and no one would care, simply because i'm female and entitled to behave weirdly.

it must be my PMS right?

if you would replace P with 'perpetual'. -_-"

maybe we should start a different thread on this.

You're not the only one!

I've talked about this a little here, but if I sleep too much, more than three or four hours, I have ugly things happen, sometimes. One of the things that can happen is that my tactile senses don't always wake up. That's just my description, but imagine how many times a kid breaks his knuckles and toes kicking and hitting things in order to feel something, while he's learning that not all feeling is good, even if you don't have ANY tactile sense at all, right then.
It comes and goes, but when it visits, it's always after a "good" night's sleep.

Cat naps work just fine for me, thanks anyway.

I tend to think of sleep as a kind of diet. If I'm not physically active during the day, I won't need as much rest. After lots of tiring work I am hungrier for sleep at the end of that cycle. I think too much sleep makes me sort of slumber-obese and I hate that feeling.

ditto

if I sleep more than seven hours I get grumpy, my body aches, hehe, just like and old man

seven hours is my sweet spot