Autism and Nocturnality

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Where are the true night people at?

Ever since my early teens my circadian rhythm had been slowly changing, up to the point where now I can fall asleep full of energy at 12PM and wake up dead tired at 8AM. There is no avoiding this since most courses and most jobs start early in the morning. Comparing to others I am even considered lucky that I can wake up as 'late' as 8AM. But whenever I do not need to wake up early the next day I easily stay awake to 6AM, even when I woke up early in the morning the same day. My energy peaks around 1 AM, I only start to get a little sleepy around 5AM and usually at 6AM I finally get in the mood and condition to sleep properly. It just feels much more natural to me to sleep from around 6 AM to around 1PM, with that rhythm I wake up refreshed and full of energy. With this cycle I am much and much more productive and alert than I would have been on a normal cycle.

With society solely being completely catered towards early birds it doesn't make things easy for us nocturnals, especially when some people falsely accuse you for being lazy. I have never see those early birds working passionately at their study or hobby until sunrise! Heck, most people complain for days when they have to do a single dreaded 'graveyard shift'. I believe nocturnality just something completely natural that goes against the norm of society, a species that has a percentage of people that are fully alert when most are vast at sleep is much more likely to survive and prosper in a hostile world.

I wonder how common nocturnality is in people with autism. Please share your experiences!

I am a night owl and pretty much always have been. I have heard that what determines whether you are a night owl or a morning person is what time of day your body temperature peaks.

If I weren't on sedating antipsychotics, I would sleep 02:00 - 06:00 every night like I did for several years until I got medicated for schizophrenia.

I get tired 2 hours after taking my night time Olanzapine dose. I have tried taking it real late, but staying up late makes my migraines really awful.

In university I did my best work at night. If I had my choice I'd go to bed around 2 am, get up around 9am and grab a short nap in the late afternoon.

Unfortunately I don't have a choice as I work 8-4.

I have posted threads about my horrible sleep issues. I think the reason I tend to be up at night instead of the day is because it's when things are peaceful and I know I won't be bumping into people left and right. I reserve grocery trips for late night, etc. The day is just so draining with everything happening.

I'm awake pretty late at night nowadays, more so because of family health issues and my dumb mind worrying, even though everything is literally perfect with my parents now.

My sleeping patterns are royally screwed up. For months now I'm up every night until at least 2 AM or even later watching Youtube or playing The Sims, and some days I get up at around 10 or 11 but other days I sleep in past noon. Like today, I slept in until 2pm and I'm still not feeling fully awake. When I sleep really late like that I have strange, seemingly never-ending dreams so one must cause the other. Several years ago, shortly before being diagnosed my sleep suddenly changed where I would either wake up much earlier or not sleep at all no matter how tired I was and would get spasms every time I'd start to drop off. Sometimes I'd even have anxiety attacks in my sleep and wake up feeling like I was having a heart attack with chest pain and dizziness and feelings of impending doom. I take meds to help me sleep at night and I think If I just took them earlier at I would sleep at a more reasonable hour, even though they seems to take hours to kick in, but just thinking doing that makes my skin crawl. I feel very guilty about sleeping in so late, I sometimes miss out on things where I need to be up by 11 am at least, like going out for lunch with my mom. I also nap a lot during the day, especially when I get up earlier. I hate feeling guilty for sleeping in late even though I don't really need to get up early most days because there is nothing for me to do. But there's even less for me to do at night except stay in my apartment alone, watching Youtube, playing games or working on my crafts. Maybe I'll start getting up a bit earlier when we set our clocks back this fall. It was not long after the daylight savings time last spring that my sleep got pretty messed up.

I am a night owl and pretty much have been since childhood. Tho sadly the choices for jobs are limited during the over night hours soo I have to be up when the sun is the most brightest ugh...

I got a day job so I'm sleeping between 12.30am and 6am. I can definitely see myself become a total night owl if I didn't have a job to worry about.

I tend to be more of a night owl. I'm up at like two or three in the morning because of my concerta. It's an extended release, and everything I've tried doesn't even want to touch me. No, I can't stop taking it. If I do, I suffer from profound anxiety and notice my ADHD and Autism worsens.

My sleep schedule is just all over the place.

Don't know why I feel more awake at night for some reason.

am a later nighter and always have been,made even worse with depression, which causes extreme tiredness and need for sleep during the day so am awake all night but the prozac have recently switched to seems to have flipped it around a bit as am going to bed after family guy finishes on bbc three and getting up around six am every time.

My sleep schedule is extremely inconsistent. Sometimes I can get by on 4 hours of sleep without any problems, other times I'll be awake for only 6 hours and I'll want to go back to bed. I've been trying to wake up earlier and be more active during the day, since it's the only time I can go into town and run my errands, but when I have no responsibilities or I simply don't feel like giving a crap, I'll be naturally inclined to staying up late at night.

I like being up late at night since it's much quieter than it is during the day, and I can actually "hear" myself think. When I hear things going on around me, and there's light shining through the windows, then I can't focus on things nearly as well, nor do I feel as comfortable.

2/3 at night till 11/12 in the morning are my natural sleep hours. If I have to change it I am functioning like on a jet lag. I might go to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 7am for work week for whole months but I am still returning to my night schedule every weekend and in my days off. And only when I sleep like this I am not sleep deprived. Sleeping 8h between 10pm and 7am might be "healthy" but I am still tired despite slleping 9h. Only 3AM-12AM gets me energetic.

I tell my employer that I prefer to work on nights, weekends and holidays. The jobsite is a peaceful place away from the day to day vermin infested chaos that is the modern world. Its also easier to deal with a smaller group of people on skeleton crews with less to do as well as easier to pass as "normal".

Every Aspie should carefully consider night shift.

One drawback is that driving or riding a motorcycle can be more dangerous in icy or adverse weather conditions. An AWD vehicle such as a Suzuki SX4 Crossover (discontinued but the nicest and 1st new vehicle I've ever owned) or a Subaru is also a good idea. Be sure to have foglights installed and consider more powerful headlight bulbs.