Effects of sleep deprivation on aspies

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My therapist once told me that it you're planning on doing something social, it would help a lot to be well rested, and for the event not to be too high stimulation (I understood the reason behind the latter), but I'm not sure what role sleep deprivation plays.. Are the negative symptoms of aspergers more pronounced on a day following a bad night's sleep; flaring emotions, excessive anxiety, slow processing of social information, impulsive, bad short term memory, weak executive function? Does the evidence suggest that we are more autistic (in a negative way) when we don't get our sleep? Are these weakened characteristics simply universal among aspies and NTs (just a tad excessive for aspies given they're already weak in certain areas)? Google will only give me "Aspergers effects on sleep", one of those annoying search engine conundrums; haven't found anything on that in my literature either.

I don't know about any formal research done on this, but my personal experience says YES.

It is for me. I know if I go one night without sleep, my anxiety will bother me the whole day. It makes concentrating and focusing difficult for me. My anxiety becomes so debilitating that it's absolutely difficult to do my normal routines throughout the day. As long as I can manage a three or more hours of sleep a night though, this won't happen to me.

I'm awaiting assessment but all I know is, everything feels worse to me when I haven't had enough sleep. You name it, I'm coping worse. Conversely, when I've had enough sleep, I cope better with anything and everything.

People can get cranky when they're tired. Or hungry.

Being well rested increases performance in every area of life. Are you asking us because you don't believe your therapist? Or because you don't want to give up your habit of staying up all night?

People in general, doesn't matter if NT or aspie, start to experience detrimental effects from sleep deprivation. There have been documented cases of behavior in a healthy person becoming the behavior of a person with psychosis when severely sleep deprived. That is well documented. Probably a search on "effects of sleep deprivation" will get you that material. Even though it's not specific to people on the autism spectrum, getting enough sleep in order to avoid feeling unduly stressed out is something even NTs recommend to each other.

So you can take it as just a given, in a way, that people on the spectrum will suffer also, maybe worse who knows, but the effects are "not good" however you slice it or whoever you are.

And I'm typing this while pulling an all-nighter because I don't want to go to bed.....

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I say yes. I also think that low blood sugar will also cause this, and both for the same reason, - the brain has less chemical energy available to use for processing.

I was speculating if he was suggesting sleep deprivation was some sort of AS kryptonite, like processed foods for ADHD people. In any case, I had a feeling a few people we empathize with me, I had a bad nights rest and it carried over into a very stressful and unproductive day. I actually use ear plugs and nasal strip because I am very anal about sleep hygiene and getting quality REM cycles.

i don't get the recommended amount of sleep someone my age needs. not on the weekdays, i spend my nights posting on here, in a shed outside.

i think i'll be equally stressed with or without plenty of sleep, it feels that way. wake up at noon and hate yourself.

social interaction takes a lot of mental energy, you'll need all of it that you can get, that's where the good night sleep comes it.

in my case, i am not really affected by a lack of sleep, even for several nights, except for that very point: i am less able to supress my sensory issues.
on a semi-related note, i do actually need less sleep then is recommended, i only get like 5 hours a night and that is plenty, so it is easy to 'miss' sleep with no ill effects whatsoever, and it also makes it easier to undo, since a 'normal' 8 hour night is almost twice what i need

Sleep deprivation ruins my ability to concentrate.

I have 2 jobs and most day's start at 7 am to 8 pm at night. As the day progresses I get extremely anxious and people really irritate me. If I lack in sleep at night it is like this all day long. I feel sick and have a headache and just want to go home and lay in a very dark room. On my one day off per week I spend almost the whole day away from people except my therapist, I see her to help defuse all the negative stimulus I experienced during the week. On Friday night I spend the entire time doing what I enjoy. There have been several times I was not able to make it through the day and had to go home. I feel exhausted most of the time. I have thoughts of wanting to just die so I do not have to live like this any longer.

I am worse if I am not rested, definitely.

I can still think logically while sleep deprived, albeit my social abilities fly out the metaphorical window. When lacking a proper nights sleep I seem to have more anxiety and less concentration on boring/mundane work as well.

^^^ Me too. In fact, without proper rest I can be a complete disaster.