Sleep Hygiene For Autistic People
If you are autistic, it’s likely you struggle with falling asleep, staying asleep and feeling rested. As an autistic person, I understand all too well how impactful sleep can be on every aspect of my life. That’s why sleep hygiene can be a critical practice for many autistic people.
There is so much we can do to get a good night’s sleep and up our sleep hygiene practices. In this blog, I’ll be talking about sleep hygiene, why it’s important for autistic people and how to implement sustainable habits into your own routines.
A little disclaimer before we start. This blog is not a medical diagnostic tool. I talk about my own experiences with sleep and share tips that work for me, in the hopes that some might work for you. However, if you do suffer from chronic sleep issues, like insomnia, I encourage you to see a medical professional. They might be able to rule out any underlying medical conditions. Now, with all that being said, let’s get into this blog post.
What Is Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep hygiene means everything you do to take care of your sleep. This includes bedtime routines, sleep practices and habits. Having good sleep hygiene helps promote relaxation and rest at the end of the day. And you do this by having a toolbox of habits and routines that aid good sleep hygiene.
But why is sleep hygiene so important? People brush their teeth and shower to keep healthy. And it’s the same when we get good sleep. Sleep hygiene keeps your brain, hormones and circadian rhythm healthy. Poor sleep, disruptions to our hormone cycles and difficulty waking can worsen mental health symptoms. And, as autistic and other neurodivergent people have increased sensitivities to sleep disorders, maintaining good sleep hygiene is important.
How To Introduce Practices Into Your Routine?
Make changes gradually! It can be easy to make all the changes all at once. However, this can make it difficult to achieve long terms goals and build sustainable habits.
Identify what works for you. To make changes to your sleep routine, think about what is working well. Celebrate the things you are already doing. To give an example, some people do not drink alcohol before bed. So, they can check that off their list.
Identify what is not working for you. Make a list of your sleep hygiene routine and go through it. See if there are changes that are the easiest for you to make.
From your list, choose one change to start with. Just one! Try to practice it consistently for 2-3 weeks. When you believe the change has been fully incorporated into your routine, you can add another small change.
Try to stick with it! It can take about 28 days before changes become mindless habits. So, it’s important to be consistent. And if you try and make too many changes, you can overwhelm your body and your body with resist the change. I know it can be hard for some neurodivergent people to be consistent and implement change. So, remember to take your time, start small and give yourself some compassion if you forget to do something.
Sleep Hygiene 101
Sleep In A Cool, Dark Room
When we try to go to sleep in a room with a lot of stimulation, it makes it tricky for our brains to shut off. This is particularly true for those of us who are sensitive to lights and sounds. So, sleeping in a dark, cool room gives our brains a chance to unwind. If this is not comfortable for you, you can try a sound machine, eye masks, earplugs or black-out curtains. And when we sleep in a slightly cooler room, we tend to sleep deeply and stay asleep. Some people find using a fan can be helpful with this.
Avoid Screens Before Bedtime
As we have probably all heard at this point, screens can have a detrimental effect on our sleep cycles. This is because they mess up our circadian rhythms by waking up our brains. Screens provide a lot of stimulation, which keeps us awake. The harsh light from screens can confuse our brains by sending signals that it is not nighttime. Allowing your body to unwind naturally will make it easier to fall asleep. So, try not to use any screens before bedtime.
Avoid Caffeine Or Naps
Ideally after 2pm. Caffeine can stay in the body for a long time. And for autistic and other neurodivergent people, it can take us longer to detox substances like caffeine. If we eat or drink caffeine too late in the day, it can make us too wired to fall asleep at night.
Taking naps throughout the day can also have a similar effect. It can throw off our circadian rhythm and wake our bodies up. Which can make it harder for us to fall asleep.
Exercise During The Day
I’m sure we have all heard about the importance of exercise. And when we exercise during the day, we use up our body’s energy and become sleepier at night. Exercise also releases endorphins. This promotes a better mood and helps the body regulate our emotions. And thanks to this emotional regulation, you might find it easier to fall asleep. This is because the body decreases stress and anxiety that are keeping us awake.
But Avoid Exercising Too Close To Bedtime
Even though I’ve just talked about the importance of exercising, the time of day matters. It’s best to avoid strenuous exercise before bedtime. Exercise can wake up the body and even turn on our body’s trauma responses. This is your fight/flight/freeze mode. And if you don’t allow your body time to regulate itself after exercise, you will find it harder to fall asleep.
Wake Up And Go To Sleep The Same Time Everyday
When we wake up and go to bed the same time every day, our body’s circadian rhythms are more consistent. This allows our brains to wake up and get drowsy when we want them to. A good night’s sleep supports focus and emotional regulation throughout the day. This, in turn, allows us to experience less anxiety when we try to go to sleep.
Avoid Alcohol Before Bedtime
Even though alcohol may temporarily decrease stress and make us sleepy, it can worsen our sleep. It can decrease the quality of our sleep (we don’t get as much deep sleep or REM sleep with alcohol in our system). This means we wake up feeling agitated and unrested. And while alcohol temporarily takes the edge off, it can make our stress and anxiety worse in the long run.
Avoid Heavy Meals Before Bedtime
It takes a lot of time and energy for our bodies to digest a big meal. But, when we sleep, our digestion slows. This means that a heavy meal is likely to sit in our stomach all night. And this can lead to a lot of discomfort. Which can make it more challenging to get a good night’s sleep. It’s best to avoid any heavy meals 2 hours before bedtime.
Something Important To Remember
Making too many changes too quickly is a very good way of stressing out the body and worsening your sleep issues. Whatever changes you want to implement, it’s best to take your time. Start with one change and do it consistently for 2-3 weeks. Your goal is to make sustainable changes that will support you long term.
Why Sleep Hygiene Is Difficult For Autistic People
I feel a lot better when I am on top of my sleep hygiene. However, I also find it hard to implement practices and be consistent. And this can be a contributing factor as to why sleep is so hard to autistic and other neurodivergent people. Other reasons can be:
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: This refers to a tendency to stay up later as a form of ‘revenge’ for the business of the day. For many autistic people, our days are filled with sensory overload, communicating with a lot of people and task-switching. Nighttime can be our time to be alone and spend time with our special interests and passions. This is time that we desperately need. However, it comes at the cost of our sleep.
Hyperfocus: Related to the above point, we may wait until nighttime to engage with our special interests. Because of our interest based nervous systems, we can become hyperfocused on a task. When we are in this mode, we easily lose track of time and this can make it hard to be consistent with our sleep routines.
Chronic pain: There is a huge overlap between chronic pain and autism. This can affect our ability to move around throughout the day. It can also affect how much energy we can delegate to tasks.
Interoception Issues: Some autistic people can struggle with interoception. This means that we may not register thirst or hunger in the way non-autistic people do. Some of us may not eat throughout the day and then have a ‘revenge’ meal at night. This means our body is working hard to digest our food before bed and this can throw off our sleep routine.
The first step to working with these vulnerabilities is to acknowledge them as such. Knowing our vulnerabilities can help us identify our ‘sleep triggers’. And we also need to be gentle with ourselves. Nobody’s sleep routine is perfect and that’s okay. If you are in a rough sleep cycle, you can revisit these practices and try to implement the ones that work for you. And if you fail, have some self-compassion for the fact that you struggled.
Conclusion
Autism and sleep issues go hand in hand. But we do some things to help us get a good night’s sleep. And one of those things is having a good sleep hygiene routine. Adding in these practices can take time but can have a huge impact on our overall health in the long run.
