How to sleep when you're an Aspie?

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I hear my pulse, too. Weird.

Here are my sleep tips, fine tuned after decades of insomnia. I sleep pretty well these days.
1. Total darkness. Even a little bit of light will stimulate the pineal gland, and since aspies are hypersensitive to stimuli, this effect is probably multiplied for us.
2. I don't know anything about weighted blankets, but since childhood I've always piled as many heavy blankets as I could stand while sleeping.
3. I wear soft, clingy long sleeve and long pant type things, like long underwear, to bed. Loose pajamas tickle me and wake me up.
4. I don't take naps.
5. If I wake up at night, I don't look at the clock. Looking at the clock stimulates me, and gets me thinking about things.
6. White noise can help, or earplugs.
7. Exercising several hours before bedtime can help a lot.

If all else fails I meditate horizontally -- lay in the bed with my mind focused on counting my breath or on a mantra

A few months ago, I suddenly woke up around three in the morning with a really fast heart rate. I could very clearly hear the pulse in my hear, and could feel it pounding like crazy in my chest. I thought I was having a heart attack! I think my pulse was going around 190 bpm (rough guess), which is pretty scary considering my heart rate is usually around 76-80 bpm. Luckily, after sitting up and breathing slowly for a bit, my heart calmed down enough for me to go back to sleep. It was definitely the scariest three and a half minutes of my life.

That sounds pretty scary ComposerGal1928

I lie still and close my eyes until my thoughts stop racing and I fall asleep in that position.

The OP sounds a lot like my sleepless nights. Either I can't stop thinking about something or everything bothers me. Argh.

For the former, I usually try to do something that tires out my brain, like singing to myself. I can't listen to music most of the time when I have insomnia because then I end up listening to it on repeat for an hour, which accomplishes nothing when I'm trying to sleep.

For the latter, adding yet another blanket or putting on a sweathshirt helps--anything that gives me the feeling of extra weight. The only problem then is I already sleep under lots of blankets, so I'll often wake up an hour later dripping with sweat. Other than that, I try to eliminate as much noise and light as I can.

Ultimately, sometimes I have to release some anger/frustration in order to sleep--I find beating up my pillows or even tearing apart my bed and re-making it works.

I listen to The Kinks and post on WP until I'm tired and than I go to sleep and sleep for 8 hours. If I get up to pee, I just go back to bed right away. I'm also staying away from energy drinks after I've self medicated on 4 of them on Wednesday. If I'm on YouTube, I listen to soft and relaxing music for an hour before I go to bed. I don't watch any TV during the evening and I don't have my netbook beside my bed. My TV is also on the other side of my apartment, so I can't see it from my bed.

Usually very late at night, sometimes I go through stages of waking up and falling back to sleep repeatitively or can't sleep at all even when I try concentrating on sleeping and sometimes I have high anxiety and cannot sleep.

I had a terrible night sleep last night. My head was like a rock but my body was raring to go.

You guys have a host of practical tips. Thanks.

I keep hearing about reading before bed. I have tried that, and you know what it does? It gets me THINKING.

Reading stirs my brain up. Don't you love that phrase? I view someone stirring something in my head with a stick. But, that's what it's like. After I finish reading something, I can't stop thinking.
So, no reading before bed.

C0MPAQ, is propranolol a benzodiazepine? It better not be - it works wonders keeping me from having a full blown meltdown...

Depends on what you read, but also sometimes thinking about the book is more sleep inducing to me than what I would be thinking about if I didn't read. But when I want to dream, not think, poetry works for me. Of course I'm fussy about which poets and poems. I like Mary Oliver and W.B. Yeats for sleep aids.

Hmmm. I wonder if Robert Frost or Longfellow would work.

Those are my favorite poets.

This seems to have closed down now...gutted (and tired)...do you know of any similar stations?

Well there are two things I do when I absolutely cannot sleep and one of them I cant discuss here!

The other is make sure I have a set sleeping routine. I always have a movie playing, but with my glasses off. I can barely see in front of me without them so hearing the movie and only trying to hear the movie while I cant see it sort of helps that and the room being really cold while I bury under a blanket. I use a sheet a blanket and a comforter. They weigh more than alone and that helps, too.

For me the best "sleeping pill" is nice, furry, purring cat, or even better - two of them

As far as I know - not only for me

OK, a lot of the medication that people have recommended are actually not so good, but just get some good drowsy anti-histamines prescribed.

With these though, you should only take them about 3-4 days out of 7 days a week. This is what I have prescribed at the moment from my psychiatrist, because I have tried so much medication, that he just gave me anti-histamines and they work. But yeah, you can't take them every night, or you'll become addicted and you'll not be able to sleep without them, as that's also what happened to an old friend of mine.

They're good because they're just enough to send you to sleep, without giving you that wiped out hungover feeling in the morning.

I have always had trouble sleeping, ever since I can remember.

Have you tried all the natural remedies though? What about Melatonin?

I have had insomnia for a very long time .... Difficulty getting to sleep, waking often, and waking early. I have good, calming, before bed routines but that doesn't seem to help.

What has helped is promethazine hydrochloride which I have now been taking for a couple of months . It's a first generation antihistamine which is available over the counter (at least in the UK) for a variety of purposes. I get mine on prescription, however - 50mg per night.

It has made a huge difference. I'm normally asleep now within 15 mins of getting into bed,and I rarely wake during the night except if I need to use the toilet ... and even then it only takes a couple of minutes for me to fall asleep afterwards.

To begin with I user to get a "hangover" in the morning which made it really difficult to get going, but that doesn't happen any more. It's not addictive at all.

Regards hearing your pulse through the pillow ... I assumed everyone heard that! I actually find the noise of it calming though, and sometimes even wear earplugs just to accentuate the effect ...