Temperature issues when sleeping?

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During the daytime, I generally can tolerate temperatures a bit colder than the average person. I'll be comfortable in a short sleeved shirt when everyone else needs a long sleeved shirt.

But when sleeping, it's the opposite. I need way more blankets than anyone else. When going to sleep, I'll be too hot, but I'll wake up at 3:00 in the morning being too cold. The funny thing is, although my core feels cold, my feet feel like they are too hot.

Someone suggested to me that maybe, in fact, it's not that I'm too cold at 3:00 in the morning, but that my brain isn't properly interpreting temperatures. That although I feel like my core is cold, I am in fact actually too hot, and my feet feel hot because they are trying to dissipate the excess heat.

What do people think? Could this be related to ASD? Might it be some variation on a sensory issue?

Anyone else have similar issues?

I sleep with 10 layers of blankets at night with one of those layers being a heated blanket. On top of this I sleep with a t shirt, pants and socks. Without this I wake up from being too cold. My body cant regulate temperature properly. I layer the blankets so that my waist has the most and my feet the least layers.

Do you feel that it is the cold which is waking you up at 3am? I ask because there is a natural cycle to body temperature, with the lowest temperature roughly coinciding with the deepest point in the sleep cycle; which makes me wonder if there is some other reason why you are waking at that time, and then you are noticing this natural variation (possibly with some autistic hypersensitivity which exaggerates it.)

I have always had bad insomnia, and I quite often notice a similar variation where I have the chills if I'm awake in the early hours, though not as extreme as you are describing, I think. I do need lots of covers at night for a good night's sleep too, but I think for me, this is more of a weight/pressure thing rather than temperature, so probably not related.

The "hot feet" thing, though, really does ring a bell; both me and my Mum have sensitivity to this for some reason, even during the day. Even in the middle of winter when there is snow on the ground, I wear light trainers to keep my feet cool, and sandals whenever I can in warm weather - I genuinely prefer that my feet/footwear get soaking wet than that they get too hot. I quite often sleep with my feet poking out of the end of the bed to keep them cool at night, as does my Mum.

No, I don't think the cold is waking me up, at least not consistently at that hour. It's more that whatever time I happen to wake up, whether it be 3:00 AM or 6:00 AM, I'll notice that I'm too cold (except for my feet) unless I have significantly more blankets than other people would.

If it's not sensory related, I'd agree with you that it's quite definitely natural temperature variation, but certainly more of it than most other people have.

3AM is cold(it's the coldest hour of all 24h) and also it's wet (the water liquefies on stuff, including your bedding) so any blanket you have on might be not as isolating as it is during the day.
I also sometimes wake up at that time and get another blanket or put some clothes on (literally, because I sleep naked ). Just to get sweaty when the sun shows up.

Sleeping under a woolen comforter helps with that. I might be cold in my feet as I fall asleep (so I might put some socks on, don't laugh ) but I don't wake up at 3AM from cold nor I get sweaty in the morning. Because compared to artificial comforters that one is both isolating and breathable - it warms you when you are cold and cools you when you are hot.