Sleep

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Not sure if this is the right place, if not Mods please move.

I am reading [u]The Noctural Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep[u] by Guy Leschziner.

I have sleep apnea. But, before I had sleep apnea I had bizarre sleep movements, still do. I've had sleep paralysis, what felt like astral projection ( in my dream I couldn't sleep, so I got up and went about my business around the house ), a few hours later I woke up in the bed. I talk in my sleep, get in fights in my sleep. I have kicked a hole in our couch.

That I know of, I do not sleep walk. Otherwise, I have personally experienced many of the scenarios I am reading about in this book.

I am curious if this is a ND thing, or just a "me" thing?

Anyone else have any weird sleep patterns?

I sleepwalk in times of distress. It happened a few months ago when my mother was dying, and was the first time since I was a teenager at boarding school.

For the last month or so I've only been able to sleep if I drink a bottle of rum, which absolutely can't continue.

From what I've seen here, sleep-related issues seem to be very common in people on the spectrum.

Weird sleep patterns? YES. I'm an insomniac and often function by staying awake 24 to 36 hours, then sleeping for 12. It's also common not to get much rest from sleep.

I also "kick" in my sleep, sometimes hard enough to wake up. If that happens in the middle of a dream it usually gets incorporated in it by me suddenly falling through the floor.

I don't walk in my sleep but I speak sometimes and apparently my voice sounds very different, which I hear is fairly common for sleep-talkers.

Just really bad insomnia all my life - I hate being dependent on medication, but it seems to be either that or no sleep at all. Without something to force me into unconsciousness I'll usually just lay there in this weird semi-conscious state of repetitive thought loops and a sensation like an electrical current running through my brain, never going into deeper sleep.

Since sleep problems are so common with autism, I wonder why researchers don't focus on them more. Seems to me like the inability to get proper sleep could be a cause of so many of the symptoms.

Thanks for the replies. I was beginning to think I was the only one.

I have had periods of insomnia when very depressed. I further complicated it with substances like benzodiazepines and opiates, occasionally alcohol and much less occasionally weed. What I have found is that none of these substances worked for me the way they worked for NTs. They either amped me up or rendered me catatonic. Neither of which was acceptable (for me). I appear manic or zombielike, or unconscious. And I found it very hard to function or convince people in power that I was functional. Once I got clean/sober, I was put on an antidepressant. And Trazadone in small doses... After about 3 years of that regime, I stopped the Trazadone and remained on my antidepressant. And I slept like a normal person. I will occasionally use Melatonin ( dreams are very vivid on this ) if I have taken a nap, but despite sleep apnea, I still sleep. I do have a CPAP though.

Much of the things I have described in my OP have all come after getting my sleep regulated. But, they aren't scary to me, so much as they are scary to the people who watch it. I'm scared because of their reactions. It's like having a surreal night life that I reflect back on throughout my day. The more drastic stuff like kicking a hole in the couch is rare. But I dream vividly, like a picture show.