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.
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!
My friends have their reasons, but most of them are either unemployed or working part-time. I was in a similar situation when I was younger.
Now that I’m working full-time in a 9-to-5 kind of job, I’ve realized I just can’t do what I used to. I try to resist taking naps, but sometimes the urge to sleep comes on so suddenly and strongly that fighting it actually gives me migraines and causes mental distress. I think that’s the narcolepsy at play.