For the last week or two, I’ve been having really hard time sleeping at night. I wouldn’t call it Insomnia but rather something else all together.
Not that I wasn’t under tremendous amounts of stress before but this year in particular, has been very stressful. Some of this stress comes from obvious places while other, not so much.
It’s like the moment I lay down to go to sleep, my world just comes crashing down around me.
I get panicky and feel as though I can’t breathe or swallow properly. I know that sounds really weird but that’s what happens. I end up having to move to the couch because I find myself so frustrated and sometimes the change of scenery helps.
I’ve tried things to help fall asleep because once I’m asleep, I’m good to go for the night. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to help out much.
Being an Autism parent isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. It’s stressful and the amount of things to worry about at any given time is endless. On a physical and emotional level, it’s catastrophically exhausting.
I suppose it’s good that I can hold it together during my waking hours but those waking hours are only as good as my sleeping hours.
If it’s not one thing it’s another.
Is it because of your mattress?
In all seriousness, it sounds like you are having panic attacks when all the stress of the day catches up. I’m curious- have you ever been diagnosed as being on the spectrum? You mentioning that a change of scenery is what made me wonder. Isn’t that what you do for the boys when they can’t sleep?
Kim, you’re coming at me the great questions today.. ☺
No, it’s not the mattress and I almost said that in the post because I knew someone was going to ask that.. ☺
I don’t think I fall on the Spectrum. It’s not that there aren’t any personality overlaps between the boys and I but the change of scenery thing has nothing to do with that. I read somewhere once that when you have a hard time sleeping, you shouldn’t just stay in bed and try to wait it out. A change of scenery for a bit can be helpful and when you get tired, move back to bed and fall. asleep.
I really don’t think I fall anywhere on the Autism Spectrum but if I did, I would be in amazing company… ☺
I was kidding about the mattress because of our other discussion- the emoji that I used didn’t show up.
I wasn’t. ☺ I almost clarified that it wasn’t the mattress because we had just talked about that but I didn’t…