insomnia

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I've had trouble sleeping for years.
Its not like there is anything to do outside at late hours nor am I alert enough to do something challenging at home.

How do others cope with it?

Tried different approaches but only very small doses of quetiapine (1/3 of the smallest pill) before sleep really helped :/

A half dozen sedating drugs and keeping a sleep/wake routine. You control when you go to bed, you control when you get out of bed but you dont control when you sleep. To overcome problems with your sleep cycle use an alarm and get out of bed at the same time everyday regardless whether you have anywhere to go. I get out of bed at 9:15am every morning, seems to really me.

I also blackout my window with blinds and curtains, use lots of layers of blankets for the weight as it calms me down and helps me sleep, control the temperature in my bedroom with an AC or heated blanket, make my bed everyday so that there will be no wrinkles in the bedsheets to bother my sensory related issues, and lastly use a white noise clip that I play on my phone on repeat all night long to prevent any sounds from waking me up. I find the whitenoise also helps drown out my repetitive thoughts that would otherwise prevent me from falling asleep.

Though I've not seen any results so far drastically cutting down on caffeine consumption to help fight insomnia, one thing that does really help me fight the issue is staying away from screens nearing the time I should be getting to bed - and especially avoiding reading the news online (why I even do this is a mystery) on my phone while in bed.
Probably my greatest insomnia issue is really a compulsive behaviour issue... breaking the completely unhelpful urge to reach for technology when one should be preparing for sleep.

I take Trazodone before bed for depression & sleep. It's used more for sleep than for depression. You could also try Rozerem/Ramelteon. It has an effect on the melatonin receptors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramelteon
Other meds you could try depend on what other issues your having besides sleep. For example some antidepressants & antipsychotics can help with sleep & so can some anxiety meds.

I agree with the comments made so far; in fact, I have been doing them myself for a long time, including taking an anti-depressant. But I would like to add two things that seemed to help my insomnia.

First is paying close attention to the temperature in my bedroom. It seems that the range in which I can sleep is quite narrow. This involves getting the right combination of covers, blankets, afghans, throws, bedspread, whatever, on top of the right amount of cooling in summer and heating in winter. All of that of course is in relation to the outside temp which makes it a moving target. I use a window air conditioner in warm weather and an electric mattress pad in cold. AND, I always have a contingency handy, something I can easily add if I wake up cold.

The other step that seems to be helping me is switching to organic vegetables, especially potatoes. I noticed before if I had a starch other than potatoes at dinner, pasta for example, I slept better. So I tried organic potatoes and now sleep well with them.

Maybe these things are ASD related or maybe they are just me. Either way, they are other things to try.

Is it the nightmares?

Not in my case, I am glad to be able to say. Some nights I don't recall having any dream sleep; it seems to take having a good night going to having any noticeable dreams at all. Usually, when I have a nightmare I can trace it back to something I ate. Some radishes can do it as can some string cheese. I generally avoid both now.

I've had insomnia since I was a baby, my mother told me, I've never remembered being able to go to bed and just sleep, can take hours, no matter what, I know it's not due to screen time, as when I was young we didn't have computers/phones etc that you would be on. I found that I think way too much at might, worry and stress about everything, including not being able to sleep. When I do sleep, I find my dreams are really vivid, so I often am not sure if I am asleep and dreaming or awake and thinking. I have found that taking stress and anxiety herbal formulas have worked better than a sleeping tonic. Also I just don't go to bed too early as trying to get to sleep early makes me more anxious and annoyed. Special breathing techniques and essential oils with Vetiver have helped.

I've always been a late-onset insomniac, and my Mum has exactly the same problem. My body clock simply will not synchronise with the outside world - or rather, it does synchronise, but with a delay of several hours. I've tried medications, light-boxes, sleep-hygiene, diet, eliminating caffeine, napping etc., but nothing has ever been reliable or worked for any length of time.

At times when I'm able to live with the time offset, I settle into a perfectly stable sleep pattern, feel much more rested after sleeping, have more energy generally, and remember far more dreaming. When I try to synchronise with the outside world, even extreme amounts of sleep-deprivation will often not get me to sleep any easier nor make sleep any more restful on the night that follows (I was like this right through school and have had periods of working full-time.)

I was just describing in another thread how this has lead to me being mistaken for a drunk or a drug user due to how sluggish my brain gets as the work/school week drags on. I dread to think how hard it must have been for my Mum when I was little; getting me ready for school before work for years with both of us always "zombied" from multiple nights of only a few hours sleep. Having a Mum who understood the problem sure helped, though!

I just kind of accept that it's a thing.

I've had nightmares and night terrors since I was 6 years old, so not only do I have insomnia hormonally I also am kept awake from the fearful anticipation. I do my best not to think about it, but it's become a visceral fear that just hovers in the back of my mind.

I build tolerances to medication very quickly. I'm prescribed Trazodone to sedate me so I can sleep, but I only take it when I can't get myself to sleep any other way.