Getting sleepy while shopping?

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I don't mind public places and shopping doesn't stress me out, but after about 10 or 15 minutes in any store, I start to yawn and get really sleepy. Sometimes at the grocery store, but most often at other kinds of stores, especially clothing. Not at bookstores though. Does this happen to anyone else? I have no idea if it is an ASD thing, but I thought I'd give it a try here. XD;
I think maaaybe it has something to do with the new-stuff smell. Like new plastic, fabric, etc. Like the fumes maybe. That's my best guess.

interesting. I do also but it has to do with going places in public. It always makes me tired after being around people

Sensory overload has that effect on me. Shopping centres are really bad for sensory overload.

I think I know....fluorescent lighting, which are notably a 'sensitive spot' for ASD individuals, do induce sleepiness for some. Stores have those 'flicker' fluorescent lighting. Sometimes overstimuli, such as stores, can actually induce sleepiness - the reverse of what might be expected.

For me, I sense the flicker of fluorescents and get nervous but the reserve is a manifestation as well. You mentioned bookstores might not effect you as much; bookstores (where I'm from anyway) DO have a different ambience, where the lighting is relatively soft, condusive to reading.

Oooh, Labpet, that really could be it! I just googled around and it looks like a lot of other people have experienced the same sleepiness, and identified the fluorescent lights as the source. I got many more results when I took the words "autism" or "asd" out of the search, so it looks like it can happen to anyone. I'll pay attention to what kind of lights are around when it happens to make sure that's the source. It's really weird, I never notice the lights usually... you'd think if they were having that big an effect I would notice them, huh? XD;;; Hmmm.

I remember being a kid, going to the Market Basket and Fred Meyer on the outskirts of town up there... and always having headaches and being uncomfortable.


M.

When I have sensory overload an example is shopping or crowds, I get sleepy and stay that way for the day.

Fluorescent lights affect me particularly badly. I can get really bad headaches from them, or they can make me unnaturally tired.
I have a pair of tinted glasses (for which my optometrist had to do a colorimetry test - turns out I get photosensitive migranes, though I can't remember the technical word), and I try to minimise my exposure otherwise.

I'm lucky that flat screen monitors came around, because the old CRT ones were much worse!

Shopping in general... I make a list, get what I went for, and get out. Otherwise I end up stressed - which makes me forgetful and anxious. Crowds make me anxious in a different way, and incredibly irritable, so I tend to find periods when I know it'll be quiet. I wish I knew why, but shopping is such a stressful experience.

Yes that does happen to me sometimes, after a while of shopping or going anywhere I go really tired ages before anyone else.

fluorescent lights really get to me. I first noticed it as a teenager when I went into a fred meyer's and ended up wandering without direction because I felt so disoriented and had forgotten what I went in to buy. I avoid those kids of stores now... if I have to go, I go with a list and plan to be in the checkout line within 15 minutes to minimize the sensory effect.

No, but I withdraw and become increasingly mute, and then get told how tired I look.

Different people experience shutdowns differently. I think it also depends on what induces them and your state of mind at the time. I've had "sleepy" shutdowns before, although generally not in response to light (those are usually only depression-induced for me). Fluorescents don't bother me normally, and CRT monitors never bothered me as long as they were set at 75 hz or above.

light is not the problem only the noise they make

i can hear them and other things people are not able to and with me it is real life stuff only i hear the things more than other people

the motor on the freezer needs to be ready to explode before other people can hear it and i hear it all day even when in a different room

I usually experience that same sensation when I'm shopping. After being in a store for a few minutes, depending on the amount of people there, my brain will sooner or later begin to feel a little numb and a little sleepy. When that feeling occurs, I usually have to then either speed up my shopping by bearing down extra hard on my focusing or leave the store.

I work in a store like this. I always come out extremely tired and usually with a killer headache.

I've had this happen too. Something I've noticed that is different about clothing stores (with the exception of small boutiques) is that they are full of mirrors at every turn. There are mirrors not just in and near the fitting rooms but often on the support columns every few feet too. So not only are you getting fluorescent light, you're getting it bounced off many mirrored surfaces. Grocery stores have the mirrored effect just as a small incidental on their fridge and freezer cases. Bookstores don't have mirrors everywhere and also seem to mix in incandescent light (or at least put some filters on the fluorescents). Maybe marketers found that people won't stand there looking at small lines of type under the harsh glare of fluorescents and encouraging browsing encourages buying.