Sleep and Autism

Personal Accounts

The following is a list of personal accounts of sleep problems encountered by autistic individuals, their parents and carers.

Donna Williams

"I was afraid to sleep, always had been. I would sleep with my eyes open and I did this for years. I guess I did not appear to be terribly normal. 'Haunting' or 'Haunted' would have been better adjectives. I was afraid of the dark, though I loved the early dawn and dusk." (Donna Williams, 1998.)

Luke Jackson

"I have had enormous problems both getting to and staying asleep ever since the day I was born. It is a real pain I can tell you. You just cannot imagine what it feels like to lie there bored senseless, awaiting daylight and the time when it is deemed OK to get up. I didn't used to like the dark either. My room and my things are familiar, my security. The dark creeps in and steals that familiarity and security away." (Luke Jackson, 2002)

Temple Grandin

"At night, I cannot get to sleep if I hear high-pitched, intermittent noise such as a backup alarm on a truck or children yelling in the next hotel room; they make my heart race. Thunder or airport noise does not bother me, but the little high-pitched noises cannot be shut out." (Temple Grandin, 2000)

Alison Blake

"Sleepless nights are to be expected when you have a baby, but what I didn't expect was to be sleep deprived for 13 years! My daughter, who was diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum when she was 6, had sleep problems from the day she was born, as do many children with autism. Not only did she battle against going to bed or to sleep, but also she would wake up throughout the night and then have difficulty falling back to sleep. She had no respect for night or day, dark versus light!" (Alison Blake, 2005)

Jacqui Jackson

"We have tried everything to improve the children's sleep patterns, from drugs to homeopathy and massage. I have tried everything I can. One thing that did have a slight effect was melatonin, but nothing worked well or for long. I am not superwoman, but I can go on with two or three hours a night, sometimes without any sleep at all.

"Luke, aged 18 has Aspergers Syndrome and has erratic sleep patterns. When he was younger he slept during the day, even now his sleeping is fitful. Ben, who is aged nine and autistic, has still not slept for a full night. Joe, aged 13 has ADHD and sleeps soundly once asleep, but Jacqui said it takes a lot of time to get him to drop off. And Matthew, who is 23, who has milder autism, had and still has problems sleeping."

(Source: BBC website, April 2006)

Updated

16 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 May 2018

Next Review

01 May 2021