I am beyond exhausted, thinking of asking for extra time off

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Currently in the midst of some pretty bad autistic burnout. At the very least I'm going to take my vacation hours and ask for at least three days off two or three weeks from now to just lie around and rest.

I went in for a 7 hour shift today. Didn't used to be a problem. But I was almost swaying from exhaustion by the time it was over, and what's more all I had literally done before even going into work was sleep the day away.

Perhaps I need to ask for shorter shifts for a little while, too, but would probably need a Dr's note for that..... any thoughts or advice?

If you can get a Dr's note because you need time off - take it. Better to go on medical leave than waste vacation time. I don't know if you can though, if you aren't officially diagnosed with something that requires time off or shorter shifts. Be cautious though as employers can just decide to replace you if you can't perform the job as its outlined in your contract or job description and you don't have a known condition on record that requires it.

Honestly, there's a lot of possibilities. Is the time you get away from work on a daily basis actually relaxing and energizing? Are you suddenly having issues with depression? Have there been changes to the way in which the job has been going?

I'd say if you can take some time off or work less, than you should absolutely do so. I'm not trying to be scary or anything here, but before I was dx'd and knew that autistic burnout was a thing, I'd keep having little burn outs that led me to a big one that I never fully recovered from. It's been something that changed me as a person and I'm not as functional as I used to be. And it seems that every time a burn out happens, the next one gets worse and harder to bounce back from. I'd hate for that to happen to you. If you're seeing signs that you need to step back and take care of you, if there's any way possible to do so, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. It's so important to care for yourself. I wish you well in this.

I did try sending my boss a text message about it, because she's been fairly understanding about me having mental disorders. I know generally disclosing this stuff is very risky, but I know she's not going to fire me over it. Especially not when she apparently considers me one of the best employees.

Still, I ended up downplaying things and don't think I actually got the intended message across. Sigh.....