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.
I generally don’t have sleep issues and sleep 7-8h during weekdays and up to 9h during weekends (though mostly also 7-8h), unless something external messes that up like stress from work (very rare) or kids (more frequent). Bad diet and lack of exercise was the primary driver for my bad sleep, low energy levels and mood swings…I know that’s pretty much the biggest cliché ever, but it still works (for me at least), the key was just consistency over time, not just for a few weeks.
12+ hours per day is very excessive though and as much cause for concern as too little sleep.
Thank you for the concern it’s my friends sleeping that long not me, but they each doing things about it with their doctors.