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.
Sleep issues can occur for many different reasons. More so when they’re combined.
There’s digestive issues, trauma - mental or physical, bad posture formed through years of bad habits, weak muscles, irregular hormonal activity, inflammation of the circulatory system, obstructive nodules, esophageal cancer, that thing where the valve between the esophagus and stomach isn’t closing right, so acid or gas is flowing through it. Many reasons.
Anyway, sleeping patterns are easily disturbed when there is turmoil. A stable environment and a peaceful mind are both needed to build and maintain restfulness.
Funny enough, when I first got diagnosed, I was also seeing a dietitian. They suspected my sleep issues might be caused by a food allergy that was making my intestines swell. According to a blood test, the culprit was beef. So I cut it out completely.
Years later, I found out the test results were wrong and I’m not actually allergic to beef. But since removing it from my diet had improved my sleep so much, I just decided to keep avoiding it. Then, after a cholesterol issue, I took it a step further and went fully vegan about a year ago. Since then, falling asleep has become even easier.
That said, while I don’t struggle as much with falling asleep anymore, my sleep quality is still apparently pretty poor.
Yeah, know that feeling. Think you found the cause, but it turns out to have been masking something else.
I won’t say it’s the case for you, it’s an addition to my first post. Someone I know had calcium deposits in their arteries due to poor hydration or consumed water quality over the years, or so they understood from their doctor and shared forward with the rest of us. Increasingly poor sleep quality was one of the symptoms.
I’m mentioning this due to the high cholesterol and not enough oxygen bits. Adding more worries to the ones you already have is a side effect of me looking to share that either fat or calcium deposits obstructing the blood flow through your arteries might have been decreasing the overall sleep quality over the years. This as something contributing to it rather than the initial cause.