Waking up ASD style

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It takes me ages to waken fully in the morning. It has no relation to how much sleep I've had or when I went to bed the night before. I hide under the covers whilst my eyes adjust to the light, gradually. 15 minutes after the radio has come on and my husband has gone downstairs, I come downstairs. I open my bottle of multivitamins and every morning, without fail, I drop either the lid or the pill. After breakfast, I seem OK.

I don't have this problem. I'm just the opposite, actually... when I wake up, I'm awake for good. No going back to sleep unless I'm really lucky. It means I often don't get enough sleep and spend a lot of time awake in bed. I've also been known to wake up with a startle. I am also frequently very hungry when I wake up and I don't go through the normal groggy phase for long. I think for me, the stress response might be too big, rather than too little.

My boyfriend, who I suspect is on the spectrum (currently being treated for ADHD), has some serious issues waking up in the morning, though. He regularly sleeps through his alarms. My friend who is on the spectrum also experiences this. Me, I can't even use alarms because they scare me so badly. I turn the volume down really low if I absolutely need to use one. Otherwise, I wake up with my heart pounding.

Yes to all this. And is it just me, or is that alarm clock sound you linked not near as bad as the real thing? It seems to be lacking the particular grating quality that makes real alarm clocks so horrible. Thank goodness.

Sadly, this sound is my current alarm clock sound. I have a serious problem waking up in the morning, so I need the most hated noise ever AND to put my alarm clock on the complete opposite side of my room from my bed in order to be able to wake up and not just turn off the alarm and go back to bed. Still do the snoozy thing though.

I slept in until 1400 hours this morning. I hate mornings, so I try to sleep through them whenever possible.

Hi, all. For awhile, I used something called a 'Zen clock'. It used a metal tube for creating a chime (the size and tone chosen by the purchaser), and would 'strike' the chime at the designated time - at first very softly, then very gradually increasing in the force of the chime 'strikes' so that, if ignored, the Zen clock would reach full volume after a certain number of minutes. The chiming process would allow a sleeper to gradually come to consciousness and would create a harmonious environment in which to wake. ...I'd always been able to wake myself up in the mornings (though the ability diminishes dramatically for any 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. wake-up times) and ended up giving the Zen clock to someone else who needed it more.

I also detest most commercial alarm clocks and have spent nights waking up in dread that the horrible alarm noise was going to begin at any moment.

Last edited by Dae on 23 Jun 2011, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sorry...double post. ?

I hate the sound of the traditional alarm clock --- being startled awake puts me in a bad mood --- so I use a Biobrite Sunrise Clock. I program it to simulate sunrise about 30 minutes before I want to wake up.

Extreme anxiety makes me jump out of bed in the morning when the alarm clock goes off.