Tolerance for Lack of Sleep

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How well can you tolerate being tired? It’s harder for people with anxiety or depression. When my mental health was worse I needed my 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night or I couldn’t even go to class. But now I do pretty well even when I’m tired. I know I should still sleep more though...I’m working on it!

I've had no choice than to tolerate it all my life. I have always had chronic late-onset insomnia, like several family members before me. Going to school/work after only a few hours sleep, or even none at all, is pretty much "normal" for me when I have to do those things. I've often missed out on weekend activities that I really wanted to do because of having to have a couple of big 14-16 hour sleeps to try and catch up with the sleep that I've lost during the week. You would think that the tiredness would make me drop off to sleep very easily after a few days, but it just doesn't work like that; I have just as much trouble getting to sleep when I'm already sleep-deprived as any other time.

The most frustrating part is that when I'm on holiday or out of work, I have a very stable sleep cycle where I get 8-9 hours sleep every day without any problem, it's just offset five or six hours behind everybody else. I've tried loads of different medications, diets, light-boxes and "sleep hygiene" regimes over the years, but nothing has ever kept me synchronised with the outside world for more than a few days at a time.

I think that coping with it is quite similar to autistic "passing" and dealing with executive function problems. I do lots of second guessing and self questioning to make sure that my focus isn't drifting, and use "stock responses" to trivial questions so that I don't have to think so hard. It often feels as if I can have some parts of my brain be awake while other parts are having a little nap, so I'll be OK with it until I have to wake up a different part when I change to a different task.

Looking back, I wonder if this contributed to autism taking so long to be diagnosed, as many of my traits could just as easily be explained by sleep-deprivation as autism.

I need 9 hours of continuous sleep for optimal functioning... which is really hard with 2 little children and a job. Never could do with less than 7 hours of sleep.

I worked nightshift for a year and half and it was brutal on my body. Sleeping in the daytime sucks, and on my days off I'd sleep pretty much all day and night on my first night off. My anxiety and depression got so bad, I had to quit my job and go on disability for a 6 months. I'm returning to work next month, but I'm not taking any night shifts.

I've been insomniac all my life, as a kid I'd be awake until after midnight easily, as I got older some nights I wouldn't fall asleep until around 3am or later, one night/ morning I got 10mins sleep, then still went to work, somehow you just learn to deal with it, that same week I barley got 2-3 hours sleep each night, until one night I completely crashed and got about 6 hours. I don't think people get how severe it can get, when people complain about a bad night here and there taking an hour to get to sleep, it makes me mad. and when people try to give advice, when they really have no idea... grrrr

I know that feeling, and so does every other chronic insomniac I've ever spoken to! I find it very similar to trying to explain my autistic traits to people - there's a kind of understanding that non-insomniac people will just never have, no matter how many late night parties they go to, or how many times their baby got them up in the night! I usually just stop listening now as soon as I hear someone say "Have you tried ... ?" because I know that what they say will almost always make me want to punch them!

Trogluddite, oh so true!! I guess they never will understand.

My mother told me, when I was a toddler, she woke up in the middle of the night. Everybody was asleep, except wor me - i was laying in my bed and making up fairy tales to tell myself.
She thought it was cute.

Nowadays, I simply can't fall asleep without quetiapine.

And my tolerance to lack of sleep is very low, I lag and my executive functioning is screwed.

Like today :/

It depends on how little sleep I get. I usually need between 8 & 10 hours a day/night. I feel very tired when I only get about 5 hours & can barely function. However when I only get between 1 & 3 hours of sleep, I feel alot more awake & functional than when I got about 5. If I stay up & don't go to bed at all, I feel very tired.

I can get by with relatively little sleep. Here's how it goes for me:

10 or 9 hours- drowsy.

8 hours- normal functioning.

7-6 hours- fairly normal.

5 hours- irritability may heighten if people push me too much, but it would take a lot, since I can still deal fairly well with this amount of sleep.

4-3 hours- notably tired, less responsive to others, may act rudely or otherwise strangely, and a tendency to zone out. Reading and concentration ability become somewhat impaired.

2 hours- Zzzzzzzzzz.

6 hours: amazing (happens about once a year or so)
4 hours: good, feel refreshed and energetic (happens about twice a week)
2 hours: average, not the greatest energy
0 hours: okay for 2-3 nights, but after 5 I can't think straight

I can’t. I would not recommend motherhood to Aspie women unless they can be sure of some support.

The weird thing is as tired as I had been before I had kids with work and exercise and not sleeping, having babies was utterly exhausting with nursing and having a colicky demanding baby, that for a few weeks at least I would fall asleep really fast in between feeds.

I can manage to survive on 4 hours of sleep 2 days in a row, but it would suck and on the 3rd day I'll have to make up for it.

Yeah breastfeeding
Pumping 24/7, colic, acid reflux n other issues for the kids. The first was so delayed he couldn’t handle bottle or food so breast only and that too only one side the other had to be pumped
My Ex H also screaming at me for asking him to babysit the one kid while I pumped for the other
It’s like having been through a series of battles.

Maybe pregnancy and nursing also weakens you physically to the point u cannot get back to your previous state of health

I believe it's harder for depression, for sure. I don't know about anxiety though. Anxiety can keep me going long past the point where I should've collapsed.

If I have to, I can force myself to stay awake for about 24 hours, without caffeine. I function much better than most people do when they're tired. I actually have insomnia, it's hard for me to fall asleep and then when I do it's hard for me to stay asleep. I have to take small dose Trazodone to sedate me so I can sleep.