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10:58pm January 20, 2015
kittyraven asked: Hi, I am your new follower, I found your blog because I am autistic (I was diagnosed earlier last year pdd-nos, at 27 years old) i have always had problems with sleep. No one can tell me why. My current therapist has told me I am not committed to trying to sleep and i need to just try harder. I was given ambien (10 mg), doesnt work on me at all. Is that normal? The info in your post is the first time I have heard of alot of this stuff on sleep. I just wanted to thank you for making that post.

Thank you so much, I’m glad it was helpful.  When I was 13-19, I had a therapist who believed that Irregular Sleep-Wake Pattern (what i have without meds) and Free-Running Circadian Rhythm (what I have on meds) were both reflections of a lack of willpower.  He told me I woudn’t be a real  adult until I could control my sleep.  Guess I’m not an adult yet then, at 34.

Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are practically universal among autistic people.  I won’t say universal because there’s always exceptions and I hate the idea of making people feel like “If I don’t have this one trait I must not be autistic.’ But there’s a word I always forget, that I see used in descriptions of genetic conditions with a high autism rate, that basically means "this person lacks a lot of the daily rhythms that most people have, including sleep”.

When you have a genetic condition like  Down syndrome, which has a high rate of autism, people are far more likely to describe these probems in medical terms.  If all you’re diagnosed with is autism (even if you may have a physical genetic condition causing or linked to the autism – they believe that maybe up to 45% do – then they describe the exact same medical problems in behavioral and psychiatric terms.

Good luck with your sleep issues, mine are kickng my ass right now because the steroids I’m on for adrenal insufficiency pretty much negate the sedative power of all the other meds I was on.

A lot of these conditions can also be treated with light therapy, similar to how Seasonal affeectie

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