I’m not great with details, but I remember reading that many of us in the neurodiverse community struggle with sleep or energy levels.
Back in my early 20s, I went through the whole sleep clinic process. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and mild narcolepsy. They prescribed me a full-face CPAP mask because my mouth doesn’t stay closed at night. That didn’t last long I dumped it after 2 months. I’m not a still sleeper — more like a rotisserie chicken — and the full mask just made me choke on my own drool. The doctors were frustrated and not very helpful. It felt like they expected me to control my body even while unconscious.
Now, over 10 years later, I’m going through the process again. Apparently, my body still isn’t getting enough oxygen during sleep, and it’s causing problems.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if the doctors are missing something — like autism as a potential root cause of sleep issues. In my neurodiverse friend group (both autistic and ADHD), I’m the only one not sleeping 12 or more hours a day. So now I’m left wondering what’s really going on — with me, and with them.
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have you tried a nasal pillow mask? I recommend the Philips dream wear or the resmed airfit n30i which is what I rock. I’m an active sleeper and it moves with me pretty well. I have heard mouth taping can work if you can’t keep it shut. Hard to handle though for sure
There is a high comorbidity of sleep issues with Autism, 60-80% vs 20-30% of neurotypical pop that has sleep disturbances
Melatonin system differences is the main neurological causal factor. Tends to be lower production overall and abnormal secretion schedule. Supplementation with melatonin is cheap, relatively safe, and easy place to start. Consult a doctor if you have an autoimmune disorder or are epileptic as melatonin can mess with immune activity and lower seizure threshold. like all things it is possible to be allergic to it but that’s astoundingly rare. Can also interact with other meds like SSRIs and birth control to increase melatonin levels more than you’d want or meds like warfarin to increase bleeding. Basically if you’re healthy it’s very safe but if you’re already taking a bunch of meds, diabetic, etc just ask a doctor. It’s probably fine but never hurts to be sure
Other potential causal factors are what you’d expect: sensory issues, anxiety, etc. managing these ranges from not that bad to extremely difficult. Sleep masks, ear plugs, medications, white noise, etc
Apneas are also more common in autism and are more difficult to treat. CPAPs are poorly tolerated by everyone. there’s a reason insurance companies have pushed to have metrics built into them. You last had one a decade ago so it was potentially before this but modern ones snitch on you: they take usage statistics and if you don’t use them the required amount the insurance co demands you return it or they stop paying for it (this may have been the case 10 years ago even, definitely how it works now).
Outside of CPAP your options for treating apneas are fairly limited and depend on how the apnea presents. If you’re overweight losing weight is the biggest factor in management of an apnea. If your tonsils or adenoids are enlarged surgeries to reduce or remove them can reduce or fix the apnea. If you have narrow jaw issues that can be similarly corrected and reduce apnea. Steroids and such can be used if you have bad allergies but this generally is only an intervention for fairly mild apneas and then you have to deal with side effects of steroids
Otherwise it’s best to find a way to desensitize yourself to the mask if possible. I know it sounds impossible but I’ve worked with many people on doing this and it can be quite a significant positive impact on quality of life. Apnea ultimately means that while you are sleeping and even sleeping excessively you likely aren’t getting much restorative sleep. There’s unfortunately not much to do for that aside from getting oxygen into you while you sleep (or correcting the issues that prevent your airway from becoming obstructed)
i take melatonin and it helps a little. the CPAP thing is freaking hard. I have a mouth guard for teeth grinding so it helps me keep my mouth closed and I got the least invasive mask IMO, a nasal pillow. Putting it on sucks but I have conditioned myself to want the air badly enough that it’s like actually a relief to put on
This is the most academic answer I have seen so far. Any source on those stats? My doctors may listen if I can give them something.
They should be aware, it’s not a new or poorly explored correlation. It’s been pretty well substantiated. That said it would not be the first time a doctor was ignorant about issues for people with autism, of course
From a quick search:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/27546330241238668 - 80% of adults and adolescents with asd experience sleep disruption
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00273/full - 50-80% of asd populations in western countries experience sleep disruption relative to 20-50% of neurotypical peers
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00366/full - rates reported higher, as high as 65-93%
I like your reply more than the 5g conspiracy theory one.
I’m AuDHD and have had pretty bad sleep issues my whole life. My doctors have told me it’s common for people with these diagnoses.
May I ask what kind of sleep issues? Have your doctor said anything like apnea, or narcolepsy, or did they just say it’s a mental health thing?
Mainly problem falling asleep, which I’ve struggled with my whole life. Can’t turn my brain off, can’t really fall asleep easily unmedicated. Has always taken forever to actually fall asleep. Lately I’ve been struggling with poor sleep quality too, with increasing severity over the past 7 years or so. Keep waking up multiple times at night and have trouble getting any deep sleep.
Not sleep apnea as far as I know, or narcolepsy. Probably just a mental health thing.
Good to know. My friends mention the same things though I don’t have that problem as often these days but I wonder if this is the common thing that nerodivergent people face and the cause of sleep issues.
Fyi routine and meditation helped with me, the Finch app is great for keeping me on track.
Low magnesium.
I’m already taking magnesium supplements and have been for a long time.
Interesting, I know that can have an effect on migraines as well. I should ask my doctors about that.
Autistic people either sleep like clockwork, or like they’re being constantly prodded with heroin and chloroform at random and there’s no in between
I’m a polyphasic sleeper. Which means for me, my body doesn’t want to sleep more than six hours at a time, and wants to take a hard nap in the afternoon. Sometimes it can be scary how hard my body will try to fall asleep in the afternoon.
I wish the working world would let us all live to our sleep styles. Some days I am at work from home office staring at my bed.
Who has time to sleep 12+ hrs a night!? That’s something I haven’t done since I was an early teen. I think by late teens I was probably sleeping 4-7hrs or so. Now my sleep is much worse and I get somewhere between 2-6hrs depending on the weather (I need a cool room or my sleep is basically the worst), and weekdays vs weekends.
I also have sleep apnea and will wake up with headaches/migraines if I don’t use my CPAP which also leads to nights of me feeling like I’m drowning. Yay!
FWIW, after I got diagnosed with light apnea, I got a sleep mouthguard, similar to one of these:
I hated the CPAP. The mouthguards don’t work for everyone, but they helped me a bunch, and I can wear them more consistantly than the CPAP.
Oh that’s actually a huge help. I already use a mouthguard for grinding. Last time I got the CPAP the doctors kept insisting I ask my dentist for something to keep my mouth closed. But they would never tell me what it was, and my dentist had no idea. Perhaps it was this?
My sleep has been all over the place over the years. There have been times when I couldn’t fall asleep and even now I tend not to go to bed until like 2-3 AM. I also tend to wake up pretty early relative to how much sleep I end up with. In school I’d have an alarm set so that I could get up for class and I’d regularly wake up before the alarm even when I definitely didn’t get enough sleep.
I actually had doctors suggest a sleep study to investigate causes of my depression, but I couldn’t complete the study because the equipment they make you wear to go to sleep is so uncomfortable to me that I couldn’t actually fall asleep while wearing it. So we gave up on that.
I never particularly feel well rested, but it’s a chicken and egg situation. Am I tired because I’m depressed or am I depressed because I’m tired?
Then later I learned about the autism and lately I’ve suspected that I might also be ADHD, but still waiting on my appointment to actually figure that out.
I wish you the best with getting your diagnosis. I absolutely dreaded the sleep studies. They were always scheduled on work nights, and I’d get almost no sleep. Then they’d kick me out at 6 a.m., and I’d end up stumbling back to my office since it was closer than going home.
Thankfully, my next one is on a weekend, so at least I can go straight home afterward.
When I get those strong, sudden urges to sleep and can’t actually fall asleep, I feel awful. Even worse, I can get irritable with the people around me. So, at least in my experience, the sleep issues came first. And the more I’ve done to address them, the better I’ve felt overall.
I never particularly feel well rested, but it’s a chicken and egg situation. Am I tired because I’m depressed or am I depressed because I’m tired?
Very relatable comment in general, but the above was the most relatable.
My AuDHD kid (in their 20s) sleeps like a brick and always has. That kid has perfect sleep regulation and always has. I’m so envious.
I am also envious. That’s a super power I’d take over the ability to fly.
Do you live near a 5g tower?
I’ve been pretty good at sleeping most of my life until the past few years. Now I have bipolar. Lithium helps but sleep is the most important thing. I spent 6 nights away from the city in May and all of them I slept solidly.
