Stimming to get to sleep?

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Does anyone else need to stim to get to sleep? Either way, what are your opinions on this. Thanks.

I don't need to "stim" to go to sleep.

But if you feel it's useful--I don't see the problem.

Getting a good sleep is vital for anybody--especially people with ASDs.

I rock from side to side laying down in bed to help me sleep.

Yes, when I lie down I rock myself to sleep by moving my legs. I have done that since I was a baby. I just can't lie still in bed.

I rock forward to sleep.

Used to do that too.

No - but I require everything just so. Have to lie a certain way, have the sheets and the big duvet tucked up tight under my chin (even in hot weather) and so forth.

When I'm away on a trip I have a very difficult time sleeping in a different surrounding.

No. But sometimes my body just feels too light and I have to get a heavy blanket for extra pressure in order to fall asleep.

No, if I am stimming then I probably can't sleep.

As a little kid I used to thump my head against the pillow repeatedly before I went to sleep. And before I could lie down I would run in circles for "an hour" (according to my mom, I don't think it was actually an hour or I'd have been the champion marathon runner in the four-year-old age bracket...).

Nowadays, I do need sensory input to get to sleep, but I get it from a weighted blanket. The extra pressure kind of tells me where all the parts of my body are, and it makes me feel more secure and less tense. Reduction in muscle tension is an important step in getting to sleep, so a weighted blanket makes that easier. Highly recommended if you like the sensation of mild to moderate pressure (you cannot get very strong pressure from a weighted blanket because it would just smoosh you into the mattress and you might compress your chest, so it's not something you could sleep under. I don't think you could do it anyway, as a teen or adult, without getting multiple layers of weighted blankets. They just don't come that heavy.

For heavy pressure I suppose you have to get a "hug machine"... or get somebody to sit on top of the sofa once you've squeezed under the cushions. But don't go to sleep that way, that would be dangerous. Not talking out of my butt here, either; I know of one three year old kid who died because he was wrapped in huge amount of weighted blankets to sleep. Of course his parents also kicked the crap out of him, so... yeah.)

Last edited by Callista on 14 Aug 2014, 1:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i may be missing something here..... how would taking stimulants help anyone get to sleep?

It's autie jargon for "self-stimulatory behavior"--stimming (the behavior) or stims (the particular actions). They're not meds. Stims are things like rocking or hand-flapping, but also foot-tapping, chewing on a pen, rubbing a piece of velvet, spinning around... They're things you do because they feel good or right or help you concentrate or express yourself, usually repetitive physical and sometimes mental actions. They're things that typical people do, especially when they're very young, but autistic people do them much more often and seem to need them to essentially stay sane amidst a barrage of sensory input from a sensory system that can't ignore "irrelevant" input the way most people's can.

Some of us do take stimulants, usually for ADHD, but we take those in the morning, so that by the time we're trying to sleep they've worn off. You're right, stimulant medication doesn't help you sleep (unless you're one of those people with a weird reaction to it, and stimulants make you sleepy... no kidding, it happens).

That reminds me. I did actually stim before falling asleep as a child. I was destroying the wallpaper by rubbing my leg against wall while laying in the darkness. But I am not sure if it was helping me to fall asleep or I was just doing it out of boredom.

Also I remember one more thing. As a teenager I used to fall asleep with boring audio tape on (an English-Polish lecture about economy, my parents have had a bunch of them). It was preventing me from hearing all of the unexpected night sounds as steps on street, wind or working heater.

No, though a heavier blanket would be very welcome. I usually listen to audiobooks when trying to get to sleep, usually takes up to about half an hour, whereas is might take much longer if I were to try and sleep in a silent room.

I do not have to stem to fall a sleep. Sometimes it prevents me from falling asleep. As a child I needed my blankets and at age 9 I had a feather bed mattress that I was suppose to sleep on it but I slept under it.

Yes, as a child I used to rub my lips against my wrist till I fell asleep. And I'd do this when I was stressed as well.