Sleeping problems and Asperger's

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I do think that Asperger's is very much a genetic thing, but, what if it was caused or made worse by a sleep disorder? That's exactly what i think happens to me when i don't sleep very well, or i knock my body clock off balance. I become very quiet, loss of memory, no sense of time, lack concentration, hyper focusing relieves symptoms sometimes, attention span shortens considerably, etc etc.

I have been looking for a sleep disorder that i might have but have not found one. Upon my search i noticed a lot of other people with the same symptoms. Plenty of sleep but with all the above symptoms. I was wondering if there's another sleep disorder that no one has figured out yet, an unknown sleep disorder that only effects people with Asperger's? People with Asperger's are said have sensory overload, what if they are still having it while they are sleeping, hence a sleep disorder/problem?

Just a thought.

I have had both all my life AS / SD

I have been to a "sleep clinic program"

but I would not wish this experience on anyone

After 3 days, I had slept a total of 4 hours, the medication kept me awake an additional two days

It comes and goes, I have never found a pattern yet, married, single, music, silence, full moon

Diet, sex and so on..........................

I have learned to live with it, generally, about 40 - 60 day intervals I will pull a week or so of 1 or2 hours a day of sleep, it has become a way of life, I also have adverse reactions to a wide variety of drugs, so I don't try to medicate it, I just accept it.

I go the herbal route. There are all kinds of sleepy teas that can help a person fall asleep and what's best is that there are no side effects. Bedtime, for instance is a great tea that has helped me fall asleep with no trouble.

However, stay away from the hormone melatonin because that will aggravate your sleep situation.

If you can't sleep, try reading a good book until and go to sleep.

People with Asperger's and ADHD often have sleep problems. I have had some kind of disturbed sleep pattern for most of my life (since I was a baby), but it has not always manifested in the same way. Until I was 40, I was usually simply someone who went to bed late and couldn't get up early; then it changed.

It is sometimes disruptive to my life, and sometimes it doesn't interfere too badly. My poor mother struggled to get me to fall asleep when I was a toddler. She would fall asleep whilst telling me stories, and then start dreaming, and tell the stories all wrong, talking in her sleep. I used to wake her up to correct her.

At the moment I usually fall asleep OK, but then struggle to stay asleep and lie awake for hours. I am unusually anxious this year; I think it contributes to the sleep problem. Slow-release melatonin helps, but I am in Mozambique at the moment and someone stole my melatonin from my suitcase, so I am quite tired. And my sweets were stolen from my luggage too!

The best is usually half a regular melatonin tablet plus half of one of the slow release tablets. That helps me to fall asleep and stay asleep. It is good to know that melatonin is not a weird and freaky chemical but one that one's head is supposed to produce anyway when darkness falls.

Last edited by Alphabetania on 22 Jul 2009, 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

My sleep patterns have no rhyme or reason to them. I don't know if this is AS related or not, but I have heard of others on the spectrum who have trouble sleeping.

I don't sleep well


AS-related things that damage my sleep:
Sensitive to heat (why I'm awake right now)
Sensitive to noise
Sensitive to light
Difficulty dragging myself away from the computer (goddamn special interest thing)

Non-AS things that damage my sleep:
Headaches. Headaches, and more headaches. But, when you get right down to it, the headaches were caused by the sleep issues
Sleep apnea (mild)
Inadequate bed (twin sized. I need at least a long twin)
Hypersomnia - Falling asleep uncontrollably during the day, damaging the ability to sleep at night

In an ideal sleep environment, I can probably sleep 8 hours a night, but in recent months, I've been closer to 4.

Last year, I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation due to the noise levels in EVERY place I moved to.

Last edited by gsilver on 22 Jul 2009, 7:18 am, edited 3 times in total.

Diet does make a difference to me. I have given up eating Cadbury's Mint Chocolate slabs (which I love) altogether. They give me a hangover. A pharmacist told me that mint is actually a mild poison!

I feel more in control when I eat lettuce-based salad regularly, at least for breakfast, but sometimes also for another meal in the day. (I know that most people find salad for breakfast very strange!)

I am on Ritalin now. I try to avoid coffee except on rare occasions, because too many stimulants contribute to insomnia.

Going out dancing helps my sleeping too. It de-stresses me. I often need to go out dancing even when I am physically very tired, in order to get my mind and my body into a better relationship with one another (can't think of a good way to explain this). When I am in a local night club amongst neurotypical people, I feel like it's the one place where I have a comfortable niche -- not as one of them, but as someone who has a place amongst them. I don't necessarily talk to anyone; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I usually don't like dancing with anyone except with certain female friends, because I find male-female interaction on the dancefloor a bit ambiguous much of the time, and it makes me uncomfortable. When I know someone is dancing just for the sake of dancing, I am comfortable.

I have an odd sleep-related circumstance to report. I put my bed in the living room, where the air conditioner is. And I haven't slept well since. I'm sure it's got something to do with the position of the bed. I lie with the balcony door and the front door at my head and feet. In the bedroom I had the bedroom door and window at my sides. (feng shui?) I can't control the light so well in the action-centered living room.

Anyway, I caved and bought a mid-season cheap air conditioner for my bedroom - it'll be here next week and I can hardly wait to get a proper bedroom back.

btw, while I have you - I used to snore something awful, an apnea sort of thing. My dog used to think it was great fun to sit on my pillow and howl along with my snoring, while my neighbour lobbed objects at our shared wall. And I got cured - there's a thing you can buy that is like a strip of fabric you wrap around your chin and the top of your head, it closes with velcro. It looks like something Marley's ghost would wear. And it *cured* me!

Those nasal-openers from the pharmacy help too, but they fall off and they don't cure.

I have no problems with falling asleep.
I can go under in about 30 seconds sometimes.
Staying asleep can be an issue.

I have undiagnosed sleep apnea, that I only found out about in the last couple of years. I'd never had anyone watch me sleep for any length of time before I was around my son's mother. She started to tell me how I made horrible choking/gargling noises when I slept on my back, and would then spontaneously sit up, looking confused, and then collapse back into sleep again.

Not an AS trait, obviously, but... No wonder I would go through the day sleepy, and then fall asleep immediately at night.

I have been known to stay up too late, even when I have responsibilities early the next morning. This isn't because I can't sleep. I do this because I NEED ALONE TIME, which I don't get much of during the day. I force myself to stay awake at night so I can actually think and be myself in solitude. This is definitely because of AS

POISON

I will not forget about that all day

Breakfast fruit and vegies are an excellent way to start my day. It gives me a chance to take advantage of all the nutrients - and the ability to comfortably skip a lunch or just a juice lunch.


This is my poison of choice -
Miniature York Peppermint Patties

http://h.imagehost.org/0031/candywareho ... 298480.jpg

according to sleep study, i'm nocturnal.

it matters alot when you sleep not just how much.

we are suppoed to really only get satifcatory stage 2 and 3 rem sleep between the hours of 9pm and 3am. its best to sleep around 10 til 5 for prefect rest.

the various organs activity levels change during the day and for example the heart activity in lowest at midnight corresppnding to a peak in heartattacks at this time.

the problem with sleep pattern is that it can very quickly create a big imbalence, espcially for the kidney and adrenal systems with we then push further out of balence by eating taking more stimulants, which can create the body needing to rely on stimlation and high glycemic foods to get by, hence the spaceyness etc mood energy levels.

i suspect at least half the common problems faced here by people on the ASD are lifestyle and mostly diet related

The sleep thing sounds like sleep apnia, you wake up many times during the night but don't remember them and thus think you've had a good nights sleep but wonder why you're tired.

The alone time is a different thing as you know yourself.

yes--sleep is definitely a problem, and various "tics" do seem to get worse with the lack of it. i seem to notice that a lot of down time contributes to much better sleep. and i agree that diet has an effect too.

i also do what i can to manage anxiety at night. i've noticed that some kind of light pressure against my front (something as simple as hugging a pillow) really helps. also, natural sleep aids have been helpful--especially Calms, which is heavy on the chamomile.

Delayed sleep phase syndrome

I'm going to be doing a sleep study soon.

Same with me, I find that these help:
A fan for the heat
Ear plugs for the noise
and a blind-fold for the light.

My husband and I have to sleep in seperate rooms all the time because his snoring can get so loud that it goes through my ear-plugs. On top of that it takes me hours to fall sound asleep, so when I am about to go sound, the snoring starts, I give him a kick to stop, but then I have to start all over again to get back to sleep, and it takes a huge toll on me the next day.