Sleeplessness used to be the bane of my existence. People apparently need more than four hours of quality sleep per night but somehow my aspie brain didn't seem to care.
These days, the problem is mostly "licked". I usually feel tired enough to go to bed somewhere between 11 and 12pm and I wake for work at around 5.15am. I get around 5 and a half hours sleep per night. I'm still tired but it's a good deal better than my previous average of 3-4 hours sleep.
It's the pressures of work and family that get me exhausted enough to get my 5 hours per night. I thought I was "cured" but after being on holidays this week, I know that I'm not.
I've just had three days holiday without the kids. Its the first time since they were born (9 years ago) that my wife and I have had more than one night without them. Furthermore, there was no computer, just the blackberry and no calls from work - although admittedly, I did work through a few emails.
On the first day, we arrived in the afternoon and I fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived. I don't know why I was tired - I wasn't driving. We stayed up to about midnight but slept in until almost 10am. Night 2 was considerably shorter but still appreciable.
Night 3 (last night) was abysmal. I didn't get to sleep until after 1 - and it was fitful with my mind chattering ceaselessly. I awoke several times during the night finally giving up completely at around 4.30 am.
What's strange is that when the artificial tiredness generated by work, family, scouts and general computing etc is gone, my mind can't sleep. My coffee intake is significantly reduced while on holidays but sleep still eludes me.
My brain needs to constantly churn over and arrange facts. It pulls these from my everyday life, from things I see and read and from various ideas that I come into contact with.
Strangely, last night my mind spent ages mulling over the imagery in the film "dumplings" by Fruit Chan. It's a film I've only seen once - and probably more than a year ago. It's not even an English-language film. I'd been reading a book which made a passing mention of it - and the mere mention caused me to lose most of the night's sleep.
Films are a special interest of mine. They're great to think about but sometimes I wish I could just shut my mind off and go to sleep.
These days, the problem is mostly "licked". I usually feel tired enough to go to bed somewhere between 11 and 12pm and I wake for work at around 5.15am. I get around 5 and a half hours sleep per night. I'm still tired but it's a good deal better than my previous average of 3-4 hours sleep.
It's the pressures of work and family that get me exhausted enough to get my 5 hours per night. I thought I was "cured" but after being on holidays this week, I know that I'm not.
I've just had three days holiday without the kids. Its the first time since they were born (9 years ago) that my wife and I have had more than one night without them. Furthermore, there was no computer, just the blackberry and no calls from work - although admittedly, I did work through a few emails.
On the first day, we arrived in the afternoon and I fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived. I don't know why I was tired - I wasn't driving. We stayed up to about midnight but slept in until almost 10am. Night 2 was considerably shorter but still appreciable.
Night 3 (last night) was abysmal. I didn't get to sleep until after 1 - and it was fitful with my mind chattering ceaselessly. I awoke several times during the night finally giving up completely at around 4.30 am.
What's strange is that when the artificial tiredness generated by work, family, scouts and general computing etc is gone, my mind can't sleep. My coffee intake is significantly reduced while on holidays but sleep still eludes me.
My brain needs to constantly churn over and arrange facts. It pulls these from my everyday life, from things I see and read and from various ideas that I come into contact with.
Strangely, last night my mind spent ages mulling over the imagery in the film "dumplings" by Fruit Chan. It's a film I've only seen once - and probably more than a year ago. It's not even an English-language film. I'd been reading a book which made a passing mention of it - and the mere mention caused me to lose most of the night's sleep.
Films are a special interest of mine. They're great to think about but sometimes I wish I could just shut my mind off and go to sleep.
Comments
I do also sleep with ear plugs in all the time.
He's scared to close his eyes. He's scared of potential nightmares, or that someone will "break into our house and kill us."
If you could offer any suggestions, I'd be more than thankful.
I can't say for certain what the best ways to tackle your issues are but since it seems to be fear rather than inability to sleep that is concerning your son, he may be having difficulty separating fiction from reality.
You need to get down to the facts. Find out why he thinks someone will break in. Did he see it in a movie? did it happen to someone in his class? The News? A book?
If it's film or TV related, then you should try to discover exactly where your son saw the problematic scenes. Then, replay the scenes (I know that sounds crazy)...
...replay them again, pointing out mistakes, lauging at bits etc. Break the reality. Give him the remote and get him to pause, fast forward, slow-mo etc.. So that he feels that he has control over the media.
If you can find special features on the DVD which talk about the making of it great, You might find that the director's commentary helps too.
Even better, find movies with the same actor in them, preferably someone who died in the scenes. Show them to him. Show him that the actor is now working on new films.
Of course, you should also show your son around the house. Show him how well it locks up and emphasise how safe the neighbourhood is.
If the problem is something that happened to someone at school, you need to talk about how and why your place is safer. Maybe his house was on a main street or near public transport. Maybe they leave their doors unlocked?
Since it seems to be fear rather than sleeplessness that's driving the issues, removing the fear should allow your son to sleep.
She only ever had a cola drink once in her life and never again because it made her brain buzz and the noise wouldn't stop - she was awake all night.
But on usual days when she has trouble sleeping we've found a relaxation story on her iPod really helps. We found a very good story that uses hypnotic phrasing. A person talking seems to be able to quiet the voices in her head.