Personal Blogs

Sleep;

Mother said I slept well as a baby.

Mid childhood;

started falling out of bed,

started sleep walking.

Adolescence;

started night terrors and continued sleep walking. Hurt my self a few times by somehow leaping out and away from bed...And often would get dressed for school or work while "asleep". (Really, my parents should have taken me to a Dr!!!)

By 40 years of age had got to the stage that I never (or rarely) slept through the night. I didn't even realise how tired I was every single day...

Last year had 5 nights in a row of sleep terrors, so much I had a sore throat from screaming and was emotionally and cognitively "exhausted". GP gave me some meds as a short term solution. This was the first time ever I had taken meds for sleep...I never ever wanted to be dependant on tablets. They worked a little bit..

Just before Christmas I went to see the psychiatrist who diagnosed ADHD and Aspergers to take up his suggestion of methylphenidate and one of his suggestions for treating the sleep problem. I had started to suspect that the older I was getting the worse my sleep was becoming.

He said, you only start one treatment at a time, especially if you have an ASD. He thought the priority was methylphenidate. I reluctantly agreed. Reluctant because;

I feared it wouldn't work...

I feared it would work and then I would be "dependent".

I feared it would increase my irritability/impatience and make sleep worse.

How wrong could I have been?????????

Even with the incredibly low dose and mindfully keeping an eye out for side-effects (tempory headaches) I soon realised I was less irritable. And, I was sleeping better.

He increased the dose slowly, and I defied his instructions and actually increased my taking of it even more slowly than he suggested. And the biggest gain is sleeping through the night, followed by less irritibility and more patience. I still have night terrors occasionally, but, I can go back to sleep now.

I did wonder if I just slept better because I was being more productive each and every day. However, I started running out of meds and just took the morning dose for a week before I got to see the Dr again. And, even though I was still being just as productive and active, my sleep started worsening again. So, somehow, for some strange reason, a stimulant helps my life long sleep problems....

People just dont realise quite how important sleep is...

Well I didn't, until I started sleeping better...I don't know how I managed to function all those years...