Not Exactly Insomnia, But...

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Does anyone else have problems getting to bed? When I was much younger, I would fall asleep on the sofa watching TV, then crawl off to bed well after midnight. Then it was video games - like, I'd fall asleep at the controller - again way late, every night (or, more precisely, morning.) Now, I'll be sitting at the computer until 2 a.m., dozing on & off ("I just need to check my e-mail ONE more time & then I'm off to bed.")

The funny thing is, I have absolutely no trouble sleeping in my bed. I'm out almost as soon as my head hits the pillow - I usually don't remember to turn out the light.

I used to have severe insomnia - I could only sleep for 2 hours maximum every night. But that is due to my illness. Now I am on antipsychotics and they knock me out 90 minutes after I take them. I will sleep solidly for 7-8 hours and wake up with my mouth completely dry and bursting for the loo. Antipsychotics also make me feel tired during the day and sometimes I have to take 20 minute naps. But without them not only do I go rather insane, I also stay up until 03:30 in the morning on the internet, and then wake up at 05:30 or 06:00 and then go on the internet again. I often spent 18:00 to 03:30 on the internet. But now I go to bed at midnight and wake up at 07:30, which isn't bad - some people on olanzapine (my medication) sleep 10+ hours a day.

Well, I know that if you want to get to sleep earlier, it's not good to be looking at a TV or computer screen, as the amount of light can signal your body that it's not time to sleep yet. So maybe doing something in low light the 30 minutes to 1 hour before bed would make it better to sleep earlier (I know, hard to pry yourself from the Internet, but for good sleep it is a must!)

Also, it helps to have a regular sleep schedule, to go to bed and wake up at the same times. Some people can have a little more leeway than others, but for me I need to keep a rigid sleep schedule, or I lose all kinds of sleep.

fairly common for AS.
interrupted sleep, you will find most As tend to stay up late or wake early as they can do things, uninterupted as there are no others about to interrupt.
makes us tired during the day and then we sleep intermittently in evening/afternoon and then we get interupted sleep at night.
also we tend to be unable to filter out the external sensory input in our environment, we cannto turn off and this is tiring so a lot of As take stimulants like caffeiene, nicotene.

affects our sleeping patterns

Now that I've had the opportunity to do some in-depth research into AS, I believe I have an answer to my own question. I think what is keeping me from being able to go to bed is an Executive Function issue. As I mentioned, I have no problem sleeping once I get to bed, so I don't believe it can be described as insomnia. Instead, my brain sort of gets stuck - checking e-mail, or in many cases, just staring at the computer screen. I just find myself unable (or unwilling) to get out of my chair & walk 20 steps to my bed. I may just have to put myself on a schedule - bedtime at 11 p.m. & that's that.

Last night I had trouble sleeping, and no, this is not because of Christmas because I am Jewish. No Santa for me I tried to go to bed at my usual 10-1030 but it was past midnight before I went to sleep. Then I got up around 4 something laying there in my bed and then at 5 something I heard noises which can't be explained at first I thought it was thunder but the sky was clear and couldn't go back to sleep. Most of my life I have either had insomnia or hypersomnia. Mainly hypersomnia due to my pills which is poison. mmmmmm, poison. I love taking my poison every night.