Autism/Autism and Dreaming

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Expert: - 4/7/2008


Question
I want to know any dream memory of autistics.  What are the images, how do the seem to the waking mind? For instance, I sometimes need a few seconds to emerge from a dream, and realize the dream is not the waking reality. Are there themes in autistic dreams? Nuro typicals like me often dream of flying, or stresses of the day, weird versions of homes, friends that seem right until you wake up.    Due to the different sleep patterns of many autistics, their dream world must be different.  
Both nightmares and non-scary dreams I would like to hear about.  Is there an autistic discussion board where people on the spectrum discuss their dreams?  Thanks,
Nuro-typical Dad

Answer
Hi Nate,

I'm sorry I'm not really able to express myself well today as I'm very tired but I'll try to answer your question.
I can only speak about myself - I rarely remember any dreams (for years I would have said I rarely dream at all, but that's not true, I just don't remember my dreams, I've done so a bit more lately, but most days I don't remember anything). I don't have themes in my dreams (but then I rarely remember them), and I don't have nightmares. If I remember a dream, it's usually just about quite ordinary every day things, nothing exiting, very probably about things I did or thought about the day before or about people I met. However I dream in color and "see" very realistic pictures (I've heard not all people dream in color, so this might be interesing). Due to my screwed up sleep patterns  and having to get up early every morning I might often be just "too tired to dream" (if that's possible) since I usually sleep too little.

Hope this helps,
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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