I can't sleep!

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Hello:

I can't seem to sleep. My mind is so active with my interests it's hard for me to sleep through the night. Plus, I feel like I need to squeeze something all night such as a body pillow due to my need for deep sensory input. I am a 37 year old male on the spectrum.

Thank you,

Blue

When I can't go to sleep, I picture sheep in a pasture. Not with them jumping over a fence, or moving, just them standing there. Whether it's a placebo or it calms my mind I'll probably never know, but it works for me.

I read until the book falls on my face. When my anxiety is high, this can take hours.

When I was in really bad shape - terrified by some of the events I was going through, I had to put a movie into the video player (that's how long it was) and pretend to watch it until I fell off.

There are many ways to get more sleep, such as regular hours, limiting screen time before bed, herbal teas, lavender, Melatonin, etc. They all help a bit, but using them reminds me of other times that even those were not enough, and that can spoil the effect - a reverse placebo. These days, I'm including sleep management in many of my plans for the day, and get enough sleep to feel cheerful about once a week.

Modern life is full of over-stimulation, to the point that I consider meditation as a necessary antidote. The wonderful thing is that by clearing the mind with calm focus, and washing the wastes out of the brain with sleep, my head stops looping on the new ideas. They get integrated into memory, and a new synthesis floats up, generally far more inspired than anything I do when tired.

Have you tried a chain duvet? If not, I recommend a heavy one.

Also, see if you can get passionflower-extract (Passiflora Incarnata) from your local pharmacy. It's a mild, over-the-counter supplement that dampens anxiety.

Pretend that you actually need to stay awake. Lie there ( in bed ) thinking the opposite of what you've been doing.

So instead of telling yourself, "I need to sleep", which can make you anxious & keep you from sleeping, tell yourself, "I need to stay awake", which is extremely difficult to do when you need to. And you will probably just drop off.

When I can't sleep I sing nursery rhymes in my head, twitching my feet at each syllable. I sometimes turn it into a challenge, for example trying to 'sing' a nursery rhyme in the tune of another and see if it fits, stuff like that. It's pretty relaxing. But most nights I do sleep well.

I work on my art if I can't sleep. It helps me to get things off of my mind.