Sleep schedule

[Jordy]

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[Au Naturel]

Melatonin

 

[Binary_Bark]

Try and get into a schedule even on the weekends.
Go to bed around an hour early, stay off any screens, phone, tablet or otherwise. When you're in bed, read a book if you can.
Other things you can try that has helped me, is to eat melatonin rich foods in the evening or as a snack during the day.

The above is not foolproof in any way. Some days I go to bed early to get some sleep only to fall asleep hours later and wake up early or oversleep. It's difficult when your brain just do not want to shut up, and you can't get your circadian rhythms in sync.

Sleeping pills I've tried, they work for a short while until my body says okay, now that's not going to have any effect on me any more. Now there is something else I do use, but not sure if mentioning "green" on here would be okay.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Force yourself to stay up all day until about 8 pm, and then crash out. Set an alarm for 6am every morning.

 

[Shillelagh]

If it were me in this situation, I probably wouldn't be able to make the necessary changes until forced to do so. I'd probably have at least couple of rough days.

I believe being a night owl due to delayed sleep phase syndrome is fairly common for those with autism.

 

[SusanLR]

That is about the same as my sleep schedule.
Go to bed around 5 -6 am and sleep until 3 pm.
I do wake up at 10:30 and eat a small breakfast with my house partner.
Then I go back to bed and finish my night.

That is my circadian rhythm and I've always been a night owl after getting past the school years.
Usually could find work in evenings and night shifts.
Of course now I am retired so it doesn't matter.

 

[Suzanne]

I have an obsession going on at the moment with get up times. I have no idea at what point it got to be an obsession, but I started to get up at 5:30 am and then, I was diagnosied with moderate sleep apnea and go to bed for 7:30pm, so that I get to wear my mask for the regulated 7hrs and have a few hours of sleep.

The body clock ( or mine) sure does work fast. In just under 6 months, my body awakes me naturally at 5 and there are times, when my alarm has not gone off ( I set it, due to stress of sleeping in) and even before I look at the time, I can tell what time it is and this morning, got up at 5:07am.

For 16 years, I slept more than I was awake, due to prozac and now, I am awake more than I am asleep lol

 

[Sarah S]

I had Severe sleeping disorders all my life myself. Still have and will have them the rest of my life BUT i have learnt to live with them and adapted same as with all my diagnosis.

Sadly, sleep disorders are a common co morbid for both ADHD & if i don't remember wrong also for ASD.

If you have this many problems, you need to get to a doc so they can try help you as you need to get your sleep-in check to be able to function during the days

 

[Misery]

In my case, I seem to have this:

Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder (Non-24), also called Free-Running Disorder (FRD), is a condition in which a person's day length is significantly longer than 24 hours, so that sleep times get later each day, cycling around the clock in a matter of days or weeks.

A bit annoying, I gotta say. Fortunately, I got lucky in that most of the time, I dont have any specific scheduled obligations... so it usually doesnt matter. Well, doesnt matter TOO much. Night time is still more restrictive, with less to do and things closed down, so when I'm on that side of this "cycle", I tend to feel cooped-up in the house.

Oddly when it is time to sleep... whatever time that is... I tend to sleep just fine. About 7-8 hours each day and I dont get woken up by stuff easily. As my father puts it, "you could sleep through a zombie apocalypse".

Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of medical professionals arent very knowledgeable about sleep-related disorders, at least from what I hear. So it's difficult to get assistance with stuff like this.

 

[Au Naturel]

In my case, I seem to have this:

Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder (Non-24), also called Free-Running Disorder (FRD), is a condition in which a person's day length is significantly longer than 24 hours, so that sleep times get later each day, cycling around the clock in a matter of days or weeks.

A bit annoying, I gotta say. Fortunately, I got lucky in that most of the time, I dont have any specific scheduled obligations... so it usually doesnt matter. Well, doesnt matter TOO much. Night time is still more restrictive, with less to do and things closed down, so when I'm on that side of this "cycle", I tend to feel cooped-up in the house.

Oddly when it is time to sleep... whatever time that is... I tend to sleep just fine. About 7-8 hours each day and I dont get woken up by stuff easily. As my father puts it, "you could sleep through a zombie apocalypse".

Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of medical professionals arent very knowledgeable about sleep-related disorders, at least from what I hear. So it's difficult to get assistance with stuff like this.

I am pretty confident that I have "non-24." Given my druthers, I would probably slip into an 18/10 pattern. Currently, I'm in a 15/9 pattern but I fade out in the afternoon and need to take a short nap or I am dead. It has been this way my entire life.

I have read that most people in complete isolation from outside stimuli will lapse into a non-24 sleep pattern. They discovered this by placing people into caves or isolation rooms with no clocks, no external media, no variation in light, and no external sound. They were looking at implications for long-term exploration of space and submarine operations. It looks like most people have a bit of non-24 in their make-up. It is just stronger in some than others.

Then there are those who do just fine on less sleep. Martha Stewart is apparently quite happy with 4 hours. I really envy people who have less need for sleep. I have spent my entire life dragging my sleepy carcass through long commutes and much longer workdays where everyone else was wide awake. People who get up full of energy at the crack of dawn to go off to challenge the world are the bane of my existence.

It helps to keep my curtains open. The blast of sunlight in the morning begins my wake-up process. Sometimes I will wake up early, drink some coffee or an energy drink, than go back to sleep for a couple of hours. When bedtime comes around, I stop with the screen time an hour before going to bed. I do something boring to slow down. If I'm not feeling sleepy, I take either a benedryl or melatonin or a different sleep aid. Also like a glass of wine or a beer before going to bed.

Now that I am retired, there's a lot less pressure to get up any particular time. I'm still stuck with a roughly 24 hour schedule because many of the things I enjoy doing require daylight