What Do You Need or Use in Order to Sleep at Night?

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The only time I can sleep is when I'm so exhausted from lack of sleep I can't function properly. Even when I'm tire I can't sleep I have to be completely shattered.

Shadowbound, that sounds extremely unhealthy...

My mind is always active.

I most enjoy sleeping during the day while most people are out and about. I like being awake only at night when it is quiet and most people are less active. To sleep soundly and peacefully I require a very dark room pitch black a matter of fact and total quiet. I have a continuous loop tape containing sounds I find soothing. I play this tape as I go to sleep for relaxation purposes. Give me these few things and I become a happy old gray wolf.

I like the sound of flowing water in nature's still primative undiscovered regions. I like being in the peace and solitude of deep lush woodlands just after a long uncommonly boisterous summer storm filled with lightening's fire and thunders arrogance. I love being bathed in the crisp sharp smell of the air newly scrubed and made pristine. I love the relentless assult of subtle smells radiating up from the moist ground. I adore the sounds of big fat rain drops falling from dizzying heights to make loud splats on a matted leafty carpet that is my forrest floor. Creatures of the undergrowth that crawl or creep and spin amuse me with their antics as they spring to life again. I'm held captive by sounds birds make a confused befuddled din, their shout of Hallelujah at rain's untimely end. I am in rapture laying on my side watching a blue still dark and troubled sky through a canopy of random patterns made by bristling leaves each upheld in a forrest primevil composed of single living trees.

Welcome to my autistic world a place I go to escape sensory overload. Once relaxed I am fully emersed in a home I love the best, yet my mind while here finds only a fleeting moments welcome rest. Suddenly all smells, sights and sounds described herein become vivid real yet deep and only then do I finally fall oh so sound asleep. I slumber in the forrest of my autistic wilderness where blissful peaceful ignorance craddles me until things of this neurotypical world call out with an insistant infinite sea of shrill mechanical events. Alas poor Wolf bullied awake yet again to Howl in disbeleif Hello World!

I find it easier to fall asleep during the day with the curtains open and I love the quiet at night for reading or thinking or just resting my senses.

Best sleep is with my dogs, in the cool and definitely no ticking clocks. If all else fails ritalin and coke are guaranteed to do the trick.

I need to have been awake twice as long as however long I slept the night previously. Otherwise, I will lie awake in bed until the required time has passed.

A cool, dark, quiet room helps, but that is obvious. Solitude in the wilderness is relaxing for me too. I can make do with pretty spartan conditions though, as I have slept on a granite boulder in broad daylight on one occasion, under a poncho on the forest floor on another one, in a 4' by 2' by 6' box with noisy raucous music playing another time, and face down in the mud soaking wet and shivering cold another time. Don't ask how I got myself into all those situations, though.

Most of all I hate sleeping in a car. It's impossible. Even if I recline the seat fully, I just can't do it. But I can snooze in the bed of my truck, especially if I throw down a therm-a-rest and a sleeping bag. I also never sleep on airplanes, but seeing as I am a pilot that is probably a good thing.

ShadowBound, try some bona fide OTC herbal remedies, rose hips, valerian, or maybe some melatonin (never used the melatonin, but my mother swears by it, and she's pretty wound up sometimes at the end of the day.)

Or get into the habit of smoking weed, if you can. I had to give it up.

always need to suck my thumb

not able to sleep if not sucking my thumb

Have huge problems geting off to sleep, and frequently get night terrors too. I'm ok sleeping for an hour on the sofa, but actual night of sleep in a bed is hard, and am often too anxious about the night terrors to want to try. When I do go to bed, I need:-

loose cotton pyjamas (men's old fashioned ones are best, bought several sizes too big)
socks I hate the feel of bare feet unless weather is really warm
Firm pillows
some dim light, for when I wake up around 4 with sense of impending death and crushing fear
Cushion with velvet cover to rest my face on
fluffy microfibre blanket or faux fur throw
Dummy (pacifier I guess is US term), stops me grinding teeth
Bear has to be near
Cross or statue of Mary, despite being roughly agnostic I need them around
Light reading, usually something I have read before- if i have a new book I cannot put down and stop reading


Also find it much easier to sleep during day (just wish I could) as do not get the terrors then.

To sleep, I need my arm under the pillow for support. For some reason, I find my arm more confortable than the pillow. Then I require several blankets, for weight and warmth, and then darkness. White noise and music are acceptable, but everything else makes it very difficult to sleep. Then I have to lie there for several hours waiting to fall asleep. -_-

Lights out, complete silence, earplugs in, in case someone may make noise coming in late at night or getting up early ( I live wandering from hostel to hostel), in case of cold climate I need a few blankets that weigh heavy on me.

Last edited by Loborojo on 16 Aug 2009, 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Benadryl, melatonin, klonopin, darkness (although not quite as much as i used to need.. used to sleep with a scarf wrapped around my head to keep all the light out,) I cannot be wearing socks, but my feet must be covered. Almost all of me must be covered, actually. Sometimes just a sheet is enough, but usually I need a blanket. It gets a bit problematic when it's hot out. I curl the sheet and/or blanket around under my feet, or I get nervous. You'd think the dog and cat would be enough to protect my toes from monsters or whatever it is that I'm afraid of, but I guess they could be considered monsters themselves. Umm.. I can't think of anything else yet but I probably will when I have to go to sleep.

Sound:

Since I live in South Carolina, I sleep with the air conditioner on for much of the year, but when I don't, I have a sound generating alarm clock which plays the sound of ocean waves and babbling brooks which I use instead.

As long as noise is being made by someone I trust or is perceived by me to be "safe", oddly enough I can sleep through almost anything.

Light:

I'm a night person, so I'm used to sleeping with light. As a child-teen, I used to insist on leaving the lights on.

Pillows/Bedding:

Part of the night I sleep on my back, then I roll over on my side so I use one full body pillow, a giant polyfill neck pillow that I share with my husband, plus a small square memory foam pillow that I use under my neck (or a backup flax seed pillow). Then for most of the year I use a sheet, plus a light comforter at the foot of the ned to exert pleasing pressure on the feet.

Sleep Aids:

If I'm going through a period of allergy sensitivity my nightly Zyrtec antihistamine pill helps me get to sleep faster (or other over the counter antihistamines like Benadryl/Diphenhydramine or Unisom/Doxylamine succinate). If not, I take 1/4 of a tablet of melatonin which I find works best of all.

Other:

I like either a hot shower or a hot bath before bedtime whenever possible. I actually enjoy sleeping with my hair slightly damp.

Haha a pan? Cool.

Oh damn this thread's kind of old, but really interesting. Mine is so boring though. XD;

Uuuh: pillow between the knees (cuz otherwise my leg gets all, you know, the restless legs thing) and nooooooooooo sheets. I haaate sheets, all they do is get tangled. XD;; One or two blankets is fine. All wrapped around me like a burrito, no breezes getting in. Except my face, I need a perfect face-hole so my breath doesn't warm up the air around my face. (No air conditioning though, that's my least fav, ew.)

Then I wiggle like a mofo for a while and after that I'm good to go. Zzzz

edit: Oh yeah, and a mouth guard thing because I grind my teeth in my sleep. ):

Last edited by wigglyspider on 18 Aug 2009, 6:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

I need the room to be dark (although if I'm tired enough I'll fall asleep with the lights on); a blanket that has some heaviness to it; and my stuffed animals - I sleep with one under my head and one in my arms.

I actually hav eno idea, despite being a fairly bad sleeper. There are few patterns. I used to have to do a certain ritual, that was more like a compusion cause I repeated it so many tiems it was actually impairing me, of having to check everything (alarm clock, locks, etc.) before going to sleep. I can't even say I need no sound, because while this may be true, I will eventually sleep for a few hours even if there's some sound (eg. someone else playing music). My floor is like a disco, many wardmates playing loud music, and I've given up on complaining every night cause I am generally the one being told off.