Possible explanation for aspies' insomnia

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I think I found a reason why so many aspies, both adults and kids, have so much trouble sleeping. I rememeber taking a very long time to fall asleep; on average, it took me two hours, and not getting a wink of sleep all night wasn't too uncommon. At the same time, my parents were very strict about bedtimes. I had to be on bed by a certain hour, or else. You can imagine how many "fun" nights I had as a result, lying in bed bored out of my mind. Anyway, a possible explanation for it is delayed sleep phase syndrome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome) Basically, instead of having a "normal" sleeping hours from 10 PM to 6 AM, your body is programmed to sleep from 3 AM to 11 AM. As a result, it's no surprise that kids can't fall asleep when parents force them to go to bed at what seems to be a normal time.

I think you're right. Since adolecense, from 3-4 AM to about 11AM has been my "summer sleeping times", when I haven't worked or studied.

Yeah I think you're right.

Sounds about right to me.

If left to my own I dont get sleepy till around 3am and dont wake up till noon.

Normally I go to bed at 11pm and while I can fall asleep (due to exhaustion from the previous nights lack of sleep) my husband reports that I toss and turn and make little distressed noises till around 4am when I quiet down but at 7am when I have to get up for work I feel like I havent slept at all.

The cycle repeats every day.

Ive found that if I stay awake till around 2am when I get up for work I dont feel much different than if I had gone to bed earlier.

Wow, I always worried about my son not getting enough sleep. But he has the opposite sleep patterns now. We have always kept the same bed routine since he was born, dimmed the lights, pajamas, low key entertainment, reading, then bed.
Way before any autism dx was even dreamt up. The disturbed sleeping started at 8 months and between 10 months and 2 years he slept all the way through and took his naps. As soon as he was in a toddler bed, he had to be forced to take naps. Then at bedtime, besides the routine, we went to bed with him, pretending to lie next to him and sometimes unwittingly falling asleep. It took up to 2 hours every night and he still would wake up around 2 and sleep with us.

Now he goes to bed early almost on his own (same routine but made shorter) but frequently wakes up to get in our bed and always gets up around 6am-6:45am. This includes demands for breakfast and for us to get up with him. He even had a phase when he'd get up at 5am.

Thanks for the link. I remember very well during my elementary school years being sent to bed at 8:30 every night only to find myself lying awake until well past midnight, only to be awakened at six in the morning to be dragged off to school. I spent the rest of my school years chronically sleep-deprived to the point that I believe it stunted my growth. My current sleep/wake pattern runs rather consistently between 2:00-4:00 AM to 11:00-12:00 PM.

That does make alot of sense!

WOW! That is me!

Aspie1,

Thank-you for raising this very significant aspect of AS. I read the wikipedia entry and it fits to a tee what my sleep patterns have been all through my life.

All the way through my childhood years I always woke up unerringly around 4:30 - 5:00 am regardless of how early or how late I went to bed the previous evening. That pattern very suddenly shifted the year I turned 13 and missing the morning school bus became a serious problem.

To this day I do not have a regular sleeping pattern to speak of. A few nights of the month sleep does come quick, easy, and early, getting up is a living hell I'd never wish on my worst enemy, and then I sleep on the bus ride into work.

OTOH, on any given night I'll sleep 2 or 3 hours at the most (or not a single wink) but then the afternoon part of my shift becomes a living hell: as soon as I stop moving, I could fall into a deep sleep right in my tracks, and then I sleep on the bus ride out. My colleagues are always commenting on how I always look so burned out.

I too try the different things for inducing sleep when I'm still up past 12 midnight. Transcendental Meditation and chamomile tea are very hit-or-miss, alcohol keeps me up, but marijuana is the most effective when I can get it. Some nights I'll just get up and catch up on my journalling (writing).

Another sleep disorder I have is facio-mandibular myoclonus. This is a disorder in which my jaw will repeatedly clench and release jackhammer-like and I've many a time bitten off pieces of my tongue as big as my thumbnail and often wake up to a blood-soaked pillow. I dare you all to do a search on that one. My dentist told me a bite guard would be inefective in that chances are I'd bite right trough it. If there is any solution, I'd most certainly welcome it.

I also notice I get more absense seizures (blank-outs) in times that I'm the most sleep-deprived and make more mistakes at work. Some mornings I have to call in sick knowing I'd not be able to stay awake on that given day. This also seems to explain why I didn't do that good in school a lot of the time and often got accused of day-dreaming.

Does this sound familiar to any of you out there? I'm listening

wow... that sounds like me alright.

least im lucky,in that i can roll into my lab whenver i want (like at 10-11am), as long as i get done what i need to get done

That was me. Every morning, evening on weekends, I would always wake up early (much to my parents' anger), even if I got to stay up late the night before. I was just as surprised as they were, about how little sleep I could get, and still feel perfectly fine. My ideal sleep schedule back then would have been from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM at most.

I have always been a "night" person. It's a good thing I've rarely had jobs that required me to get up really early or I would be in a heap of trouble. If left to it's own, my body doesn't feel like sleep until around 3-4am and on nights when I don't have to get up early the next day, I sleep until noon.

Of course, I have to go to bed around midnight so I won't feel horrible in the morning when I get up for work. Even still, if I wake up before 9am, it takes me an hour to get my bearings no matter how many hours I slept.

I can't believe there is a medical term for this. I have had this since I was 7! In different forms. I went from being a near insomniac to being a "night owl"/late sleeper in my adult years.
The faux treatments are true too. I felt so guilty for being a night owl, associated with partying, laziness and being a weirdo. I drank a lot when I finished college. I nearly became an alcoholic. But I was able to sleep for 8 hours finally. I had a night job too. When I moved out on my own, I thought I would "grow up" and work during the normal day. What a mistake, I never acclimated to it.
Being a stay at home mom with an autistic child was very hard because I had to always "be on". Waking up early was part of the deal. Now my son entertains himself until 8am and that works for me. He is an early riser, no matter when he goes to bed.
Wow, it's not my fault.

I get tired between 11.00PM and 1.30AM and then usually go to sleep; finger crossed. But if I am still awake after 1.30AM I may not be able to get to sleep again until nearly sunrise. There are many times I did not get a wink of sleep at all.
I also kick and fling my arms out a lot without realizing it which makes me a very restless sleeper. Just as well in that regard I am single. I don't think a partner could put up with it.

Paul

I know when I was in grade school...I use to wait until my parents where asleep and then get up and watch the LAte Late movie...ussually some thing with Vincent Price,Witchcraft or The Blob....mom could never figure out why I would wake her up around 4am screaming....lol...in high school I would wait until the feel asleep and walk around the deserted streets until 3am(never saw a soul and it was so peaceful)went home and slept great(for about 3 hours)....Since I have been an adult...I naturaly get sleepy around 4am and wake at noon but when I was living alone I often wouldnt sleep until the sun came up (think it was a fear of robber/rapist breaking in...hyper alert)....Now I work over nights and cant imagine working a job that requires me to go to bed at 11pm....it just doesnt work and I hate the tossing and turning thing....anyone else have restless leg syndrom...its gotten really bad this past year and I dont want to take drugs for it.....(stretching before bed makes it worse....help?)

That's definitely me, especially back in adolescence. I once got in deep trouble in high school when because of that condition, my geometry teacher accused me of falling asleep in class. I remember going to bed around 10 at the latest, then lying awake in the dark until 2am, only to have to wake up at 6am for school. It was easier in college, as I had the freedom to schedule my first class to start as late as 11am. I am able to train myself to get up at 7am if I need to be at a job interview at 9, thanks to coffee. On the weekends, I sleep in to make up for any early mornings.