Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / 5 Sleep Hacks For Autism & ADHD

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5 Sleep Hacks For Autism & ADHD · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  You have arrived. Welcome to the ASPY world.
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  Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
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  an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
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  spectrum, your autism Ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
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  OK, so here are five sleep hacks for autism and ADHD.
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  You're going to want to see this.
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  Hey guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the aspy world.
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  My name is Dan, I have autism and ADHD and I make weekly
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  videos all about the topic. So if you're on here and you
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  want to learn more, remember to hit the subscribe button by
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  clicking that notification bell down below.
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  And it actually really helps me out a lot if you do that.
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  OK guys, so if you haven't downloaded my Autism Life Hacks
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  PDF book, you can do what? autismhacks.net?
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  Not all that stuff out the way. I really want to talk to you
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  guys today about 5 hacks to create a better sleeping
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  quality. Because look, water and ADHD
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  come with a bunch of different things and sleeping is one of
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  the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue a lot of the time,
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  especially for younger people on the spectrum.
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  So the first thing I'm going to talk about here is establishing
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  A consistent routine. So one of the most effective
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  ways to improve sleep quality during younger years or or
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  creating a routine that you want to stick with for a long time,
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  is the improving of the sleep quality over duration of time.
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  This is established through setting up a sleep routine.
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  This means going to bed and waking up at specific times
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  during the day, even on weekends.
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  A regular sleep pattern can actually help regulate your
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  body's natural sleep and week cycle, and you'll kind of get
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  used to it and you'll feel way more rested.
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  So say you always want to go to bed at 9:00 at night, and you
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  always want to wake up at 9:00 in the morning, or 9:00 at night
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  and 8:00 in the morning, or whatever it is.
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  As long as you stick to that every single day, your body will
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  get so used to that rhythmic pattern it will start to be
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  really good and it will get used to that and you'll become sleepy
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  at that time of night and you'll also become able to wake up
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  without an alarm clock at the time in the morning.
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  Really interesting, but also a lifesaver because getting into a
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  sleep routine is probably one of the easiest ways to recap a
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  bunch of rubbish that is happening because of lack of
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  sleep. So #2 is creating a sleep
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  conducive environment. And basically what this means is
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  individuals with Ultimate ADHD have issues with making the
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  bedroom in ambient environment. You know they may have like a
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  painting on the wall, They may have like Minecraft lights and
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  swords and stuff in the background like I do have here,
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  which is kind of like ironic, but I don't sleep in this room.
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  This is the office. But what I'm trying to say is
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  that if you're if you're trying to rest in an environment that
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  is set up to engage you and get you excited, that's no good for
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  anybody. If you want to make a your
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  bedroom, a quiet, cool, dark place with no distractions,
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  nothing that's going to kind of want you to get up and play with
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  it. And by doing this, you get to
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  promote better sleep. Because what you're doing is
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  you're saying to yourself, OK, this room here is the ambience
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  sleep room. It's a nicer environment.
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  It's not somewhere that's like hectic and there's lots of stuff
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  everywhere. This is a big thing that
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  parents, autistic individuals forget.
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  They think they want to be surrounded by all things in
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  their room all the time. But in actual fact, this is all
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  the stimulating and could cause a lot more sleep issues than you
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  probably realize. OK, so #3 is actually using
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  weighted blankets. Now, weight blankets have been
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  around for a long, long time, and they're usually people who
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  stuff with anxiety and other kinds of things like that, like
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  some mental health stuff. They can put these weighted
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  blankets on and they kind of feel a bit more of the
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  compression on the chest and helps them feel a lot more
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  secure and takes away a lot of anxiety and worry.
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  But what a lot of studies have shown is that the compression
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  and weighted blankets, especially compression clothing,
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  actually helps autistic individuals rest.
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  So if you get yourself a weighted blanket and crawl under
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  it and try to go to sleep, you'll probably have a greatest
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  succession of trying to sleep because your blanket is a bit
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  more weighted, gives you more security, less worry, less
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  anxiety and allows you to relax into it and going into sleep way
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  easier than you would do if you were just using like a typical
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  sheet or something. So #4 is kind of one of those
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  ones that's typically obvious, but nobody does it and it's a
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  practice make progress kind of scenario.
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  And this is practicing relaxation techniques before
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  going to bed. So what this means is you could
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  do a lot of deep breathing, you could do some, you know, muscle
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  relaxation techniques or meditation.
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  And what this does is it helps relax your your body and get you
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  into a mode thinking like, OK, now I'm getting into the part of
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  my day where I'm going to go to sleep because a lot of people,
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  like, are on their phones, you know, And then turn the phone
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  off and they go straight to bed and they're just sitting there
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  tossing the tuna for hours because they were literally just
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  on their cell phone trying to, you know, check the latest
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  tweets from Elon Musk or something.
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  And it's like those things aren't good.
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  They're going to be stimulated for a large amount of time.
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  And it's also going to just make you just not relaxed enough.
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  You want to make sure you're always relaxed and ready to go
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  to sleep. So get it ready for going to
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  sleep. It's kind of like, you know, if
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  you're going to go in the bath, you wouldn't go in the bath
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  fully clothed. You just have ready to go in the
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  bath and take them off your clothes and get into the bath.
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  It's kind of like that but for sleep.
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  OK, so #5 really important is avoiding stimulants before bed.
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  If you drink the caffeine, nicotine and all that kind of
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  stuff, these things will definitely interfere with
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  sleeping habits because these are stimulants that create like
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  a boost in your in your body to make you more awake.
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  That's why people drink coffee in the morning.
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  That's why people take stimulants when they're doing
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  things like working long hours or doing kind of cross country
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  CrossFit running or something like that.
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  So if you're going to avoid stimulants before going to bed,
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  then you win. Win.
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  It's kind of a typical overall well-being idea.
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  If you're way overstimulated, you're never going to go to
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  sleep at you. It's like if you tank like 16
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  red rolls, there's there's no way you're going to go to sleep.
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  Probably not for days, but I'm just saying that stimulants and
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  caffeine and things like that are going to keep you more awake
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  than often not. Now I'm interested to hear any
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  hacks that you have that I haven't mentioned that could
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  actually help for you. Drop me in a comment down below.
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  I read every single one, Give you a thumbs up if you thought
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  it had value and I'll see you in the next one.
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  Guys. Peace.
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  Hey guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
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  Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
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  listening right now who are not subscribed to this podcast.
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  I can see you. Make sure you subscribe.
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  OK guys. See you in the next one.
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  Piece.