too wired to sleep!

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I just woke up after getting a little bit of sleep last night and not being able to settle down. I had a job to do at work which involved installing several new projection screens at GWU. First, I got pretty tensesd and buzzed after fighting my way through northern VA/DC traffic to make it to the college campus last evening at 6PM. After getting there, I found all the rooms that we were supposed to work in being used till 9PM. This resulted in several phone calls, and just a tense situation as I tried to figure out what was going on. I was on the verge of meltdown. The co-worker that was with me, although was a strong guy, was getting up in age, and didn't have quite the endurance to stay up as late, and I wanted to get the job done before midnite. Getting all worked up over these issues proved to be good, because I had plenty of stanima and energy to get the job done.

Well, we ended up working till 3AM to get the job done and everything cleaned up. The work involved moving and lifting lots of heavy materials around, so all that energy I had worked up went to good use. I didn't get much to eat during that entire time period either. The odd thing is that when we finished, I still didn't feel hungry or tired, I still had energy. I got back to my hotel room, and tried to get some shuteye. Although I was feeling a little hungy by that time, and munched on some stuff from the snack machine, I was still ready for action, and it took me at least another hour to settle down enough to finally get to sleep.

Now, What I worry is that I was supposed to be tired after all of this. While I may be able to attribute this go good health and having great endurance (I can run several miles), I don't believe operating like this is very healthy. My body ought to be able to shut down after working hard for several hours. Any of you ever been in this type of situation where you just can't settle down after an extended period of intense physical an mental work?

Um, yes. But I usually have certain things on hand to calm me down so I can do other things to wind down - like read or do some correspondence or housework, whatever. Nothing else works or at least I haven't found anything else that does. I can fall asleep when I'm wound up, but that gives me night terrors, etc.
The only work that makes me tired is the kind that involves interacting with a bunch of people all the time. Anything else I could do for days without stopping. Sports make me tired too sometimes, maybe you could try running or something after work when you're still wired.

yip up all night to clave cows and attend to sick animals, get home after a 20 hour day 4 am and i cant sleep..just buzzing....i think we operate on an intense level when we concentrate and exert in similar situations to the one u describe.....i changed jobs now i sleep all i want and never suffer from insomnia, was there dude, cant tell you how to get out of it but yeah an aspie thing for shureeee.

i hardly ever have problems with sleeping (thank god) and when i do its nothing more than what a few beers can take care of

I deal with people daily so Im usually mentally exhausted by around noon every day.

I think it is a very aspie thing to have to become good at pushing yourself past your limits and keeping going even when exhausted.. its stopping thats often the problem because you've been ignoring the signals your body has been giving you so much the body kinda gives up and stops trying.

Then you cant do normal things like tell if your hungry or thirsty anymore much less actually feel the fatigue you know is there so you can sleep.

Usually with food and drink I can just take a sip or eat a bite and the signals will "reset" and start working again (or not if Im really not hungry or thirsty) its sleep that I often have trouble with.

I spend all day fighting off the sleep process so it becomes a hard thing to stop doing (even while sleeping) so I never get a very restful sleep and I get horrible nightmares, night terrors, cold sweats, etc.

Are you still there? Thats where I live.

Ah that makes more sense

not there now...back home in Richmond after a long few days. Don't worry, I'll be back up there sometime. We've got LOTS of A/V equipment around that school I maintain, and more is going in everyday. We'll hafta meet up sometime for lunch or something when I'm up there again!