Sensory Exhaustion & Variable Functioning

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Is there a way to cope with variability in functioning due to sensory exhaustion?

My functioning is hugely variable on what I have gone through the previous day or even a few hours ago, it seems. This is obviously a problem with any full-time job or handling multiple responsibilities, like school and work and chores, at the same time. I do not have any cognitive distortions or anxiety problems; in fact, I usually think about the same things all the time and have trouble making myself care enough and motivate myself to work through any pain. My typical state would be to sit and think and process, which could take hours. I sift through details of things in my head and this actually alleviates my mood and makes me more alert later. I don't know what to do when my entire day is packed with tasks I have to do and, as a result, I don't have this "processing time" to an extent that would actually help me.

Switching tasks seems to be very exhausting and shifting between stimuli day-to-day, as well as purely sensory taxing stimuli. There was one time when I went to a conference in another city and had to test a participant in a research lab the day after. Administering a task that usually takes me 20 minutes took me an entire hour. There were major issues with this, including having to pay the participant extra for the additional time. Although this is one of the worse examples, the pattern is recurring and predictable.

I want to be able to function like everyone else without needing any special modification at work etc. I know I am capable and want to be able to show this more instead of being bogged down by fatigue and its physical symptoms like distortions in hearing and vision, random pains in the body, inability to move thoughts along, exacerbation in autistic symptoms, etc. My body also becomes very difficult to control and move properly. Professionals don't seem to have an answer for me when they discover that it's not anxiety or distorted thinking, yet I have heard similar things from others on the spectrum.

Does anyone have any tips on how to improve/cope without expecting huge changes in your environment to suit your needs? I have made some gross sensory coping modifications for myself along the way, like wearing sunglasses in bright lights, but there is only so much I can block out and avoid. I have had this problem all my life...

The way I deal with this is built into my activities.
I spend some time in a loud bright lab to do a certain eggsperiment.
I always feel sensory overloaded from time in that lab, but I can find relief in my regular lab, where I have dark quiet office, and my main activity there is working on my computer and also in my brain.
I try to schedule things so I have my thinking time in certain times I like to think, and eggsperiment in times when I prefer not to think as much. Also I try to schedule meetings with people in those more crap times for thinking. This helps with putting all the thinking times together for continuous thinking.
Also, I find that physical activity helps with sensory overload.
Like if I feel overloaded, I will do some eggsercise, and this clears my mind.
But constantly being in loud bright place with lots of human interaction would be problem for me even with these ways of dealing with sensory overload.
I chose education/career path to reduce these things, but I don't know if this would work in your path.

I reserve an amount of energy for next days' activities each day.

For most things i will plan, i know roughly how much energy it takes and i make sure to have at least that much 'in the tank', every evening before going in to social mode, i'll review how much energy i'd need for work the next day and how much i can expect to gain from sleeping.

Then, during the social event (if any, i might decide i can't spare the energy) i keep a running total of how much i have left (which is continuously draining during the activity) and how much i'll recover (which is also less every minute, as i can sleep a minute less), including any travel back home.

At some point in time, i'll hit the point where the energy recovered (from sleeping) is exactly equal to the amount i have to recover to survive 'tomorrow', and at that point i'll leave.


Not really the answer you were looking for, but this is how i cope: i deal with the fact that my functioning depends on my energy levels by making sure my energy levels never drop below a certain minimum.