I used to regularly get good sleep for a while pre-pandemic, but ever since then my sleep has become so dysregulated and I've basically become dependent on weed to fall asleep. It's gotten to the point where I get nerve pain and restless legs (that in itself contributes to insomnia) if I don't get high before bed, no idea if this is a shared experience with other NDers. On top of the fact that this makes weed less fun and it makes my tolerance out of control, I also don't like relying on a substance to fall asleep as it seems to just make it more difficult to try and go without the longer I continue this pattern. I am trying to refrain from using weed to fall asleep for the next short little while but the first night I'm unable to fall asleep at all. Anyone have any advice or experience with a similar situation or just for regulating sleep in general? I know sleep difficulties are part and parcel of the autistic, ADHD, ND experience generally. I can't function if I don't get good sleep and I'm desperate.
Start with the same sleep hygiene recommendations as for everyone else: consistent bedtime, no caffeine after 6pm, no alcohol for a couple of hours before bed, no screens for an hour before bed, dark room. Then add things that especially help. For me, melatonin helps a lot, but can leave me groggy in the morning. I need a cool room to fall asleep, and in particular it needs to get cooler just before I sleep. In the winter this happens naturally, but in the summer I set the AC a little warmer than I want in the afternoon and early evening, and turn it down before bed. I like to listen to dark ambient music while going to sleep, your mileage may vary, and you may prefer nature sounds or white noise. These recommendations work for both me and my child, so might have more general AuDHD applicability.
Also, you might sub out CBD for the weed for a while to get the nerve pain, restless legs, and tolerance under control? I don't know if this part will work.
No caffeine in the afternoon was unbelievably huge for me. I have always felt that I had a high tolerance for caffeine, but realized that this doesn’t necessarily mean all parts of the body processing it are equally tolerant. It turns out that no matter how much I consume, it takes my body AT LEAST 9 hours to fully process it. I’ve experimented with it over the past year while trying to get my sleep under control, and it turns out that if I want to be asleep by 11, I can’t have a drop of caffeine after 2pm, not even with something like green tea. I may still even feel tired when 11 rolls around, but my body just won’t let me sleep. But in the mornings? I can have cold brew after cold brew until about noon with zero impact to me later in the day. After I figured this out, I spent a while despairing about how much sleep I must have lost in my life just because I wanted an afternoon coffee or tea lmao
A few years ago my body decided to start processing caffeine as if I were a corpse in need of revitalization lol also had to learn the hard way how my body was handling it and that it could keep me up late if I wasn't careful