Are You Less or More Autistic When You Don't Sleep?

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I tend to be more autistic, and totally not in tune with the world. I still never get a full night of sleep, but if i literally don't sleep for 3 or more days thats when I become more autistic and sometimes nastier. I also tend to have a lot of problems getting what i want to say across, and my words get very mixed up, sounds like i have a bad accent, along with a speech impendament. What is everybody like when they don't get sleep, are you more autistic or less autistic, are you nastier, do you have problems speaking more, What are you like with no sleep?

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I'm more autistic when I don't sleep. I don't speak clearly and I have trouble expressing my thoughts. I stim more. I can't make eye contact. I get distracted by my thoughts and ignore my surroundings, which means I don't hear people, trip over things, etc. And a lot more. It's hard to remember all the details because it's been a while since I've gone without sleep.

Oddly enough, I usually come across as more coherent when I've only had a couple of hours sleep. I think it's because part of me figures I'm just stressed because I'm tired, so it's ok to be stressed. Hence I no longer worry about stressing out and thus act more 'normal'. Or possibly (like now) I'm too wrecked to actually take in what I'm saying.

Either way, I know that I only have to explain to people that I got 3hrs of sleep last night and they just nod in sympathy... the advantage of being a student I guess. In some ways I actually enjoy the run up to exams because I know everybody else is just as zombified and stressed out as I am...

I don't know if this is an Aspie trait or just general social anxiety...

I got up at 3:00 am this morning to go into work early. Boy, was that a mistake. I definitely seem to act more autistic when I'm tired. I chalked it up to not having enough energy to act NT. I rambled at people and caught myself staring off into space in the middle of the hall. Ugh...

I think I can sustain "normality" as far as it goes for me on about 6 hours a night, but drop to less (and unfortunately I do so on a fairly regular basis now, c'est la vie) and I definitely get rattier and I think my sensory issues get a bit worse. Nothing overt, but I just get a shorter fuse, I'll have a harder time expressing myself, I think my speech gets worse too. My OCD gets a lot worse.

I've never noticed. I've never stayed up multiple days. If I have a few weeks with no break on the weekends, so I feel constantly busy and am not getting a lot of sleep, I start to feel overwhelmed and just cry a lot haha. It's embarrassing. I can't do something 7 days a week - for example, go to school and work both Saturday and Sunday. My parents got so mad saying I wasn't a hard worker - I tried to explain that I could work really hard at a job all day during the week if I had the weekends free, but I'm kind of all or nothing - either it's a 'work' day or it's a 'do nothing' day. It's hard to explain to people. I obsess over sleep because it's hard for me to fall asleep, and I kind of flip out when I can't get sleep, but it doesn't actually really affect me - it's a psychological thing.

If I stay up over 20 hours (although never as much as 72 -- yikes!), I tend to be more verbal, more social, and generally in a better mood. In the past, though, I've had a few occasions where I was woken up after not enough sleep, and was (in hindsight) rather autistic: I could barely form sentences (out loud, that is; I could still think verbally), felt very "inertial," and very irritable if I had to do anything. Except sit in a rocking chair and rock endlessly.

I am WAAAAAY more autistic when i'm tired. Sometimes I ask one of my parents to stand in the room with me while i brush my teeth at night because if i'm super tired i'll just stand there, maybe rocking a bit for like 30 minutes. Or I'll pull out my eyelashes, which is even more unfortunate although not autistic. I am very incoherent when woken up too early from sleep. Can barely think or speak and I just stare into space.

I'm much more...compliant when I don't get sleep. You could porbably get me to do anything becuase I'm in such a daze that I won't notice. I also stim a lot more than I normally would and often random stims that i don't normally do (spinning for example). It's like I'm drunk of high or something. This is only for major sleep lose though. Losing a few hours will really only just make me tired and irratable, losing many hours (10 of more) will make me crazy.

I once got around a total of 7 hours of sleep over a three day convention. I kid you not, I was awake from friday morning(8am) till sunday night (around 10) with only a few hours sleep (3 at a time) in between. God it was terrible. I was totally out of it; wandering around the hotel like a zombie, desperatly trying not to pass out in the hallway. I went froms highs and lows of acting like a crazy ret*d to a stoner. Spinning and laughing one minute, blacking out agaisnt a wall the next. It was so crazy, my friend took me to a rave in the movie room and I just stood there blank.
A rave! Loud, bright lights, colours, people jumping/screaming all around and all I do is stand perfectly still, staring straight ahead, i could've done it for hours i'm sure. My senses where so dead, I didn't notice anything (loud music, getting bumped, etc).

Yeah... I'm never doing that again in my life.

Once in high school I was in a school play which ran for about 2 weeks. We had lots of fun late nights of high energy and laughs and little sleep. One night after a show we all went out for a late night dinner and I was CRAZY. The cast said I was acting like I was high and they were afraid to let me drive myself home. I remember what it felt like. It was really fun, and my brain just kept making allsorts of random connections...some were funny, some were stupid, some i was convinced were brilliant. I laughed constantly, then stared into space, then cracked up again. I had no inhibition and just said whatever strange thoughts cam floating into my brain. I remember being in a similar state of mind at light-night sleep-overs in junior high. I think this isthe result of a bit of mild sleep devprivation mixed with adrenaline and the right kind of social environment and encouragement.

For me, it takes a good amount of work to try to appear normal (holding up a conversation, picking up body language, etc.) and when I'm tired I often am not able to do that work as much, just like how doing homework when you're tired is harder / takes longer. You don't think as fast usually when you're tired.

I am much more autistic when I do not sleep. My senses are slightly oversensitive and jumbled at all times, but when I don't sleep they go wild. I find that I go mute sometimes and literally cannot speak. Everything comes out as word salad. The same things happen when I have a low-grade virus.

more. makes it harder to control certain things.

More. My stimming gets worse too.

I would say less autistic cos i sleep 2 much n i settle in 2 my sleep very quickly.

Definitely more! I just can't concentrate enough to keep track of all the weirdities that annoy others. Some days I wake up and say..."Oooohhh I feel an autistic day coming on."