Light sensitivity when just waking up from sleep?

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When I was a little kid I had an extreme sensitivity to light when first waking up in the morning. At first I couldn't even open up my eyes because the light was so bright and intense. I had to slowly adjust to even normal light and it took as long as 30 minutes to an hour. Eventually I would start to squint and then slowly be able to tolerate the light (even at low levels). My question is if this is a normal thing for "normal" kids or only for Autistic children?

I love places with very low light. If I could I would close curtains always and everywhere but people don't understand it, they say "come in the light, it's too dark, you will hurt your eyes". Today is a cloudy day, the sun isn't shining at all to my windows, but I feel somewhat like dazzled and particulary when I try to look outside. My eyes are definitively very easily tired.

I don't remember well as child but I know I had difficulties with brightness.

I know what you mean. If I've just woken up or it's been dakr in the room and I turn the light on it's aboslutley blinding

My sensitivity to light lasts from late evening until up to an hour after I wake up. It has been particularly acute of late - today I had to lie with my head covered for about 45 minutes so that the morning light reflecting through my west-facing window did not hurt my eyes.

My light sensitivity is not just in the morning so my blinds and curtains are always closed. Maybe if I could ever find a properly tinted (for me) pair of glasses, I wouldn't have to remain nocturnal.

I don't think it's normal for it to last that long to maybe it's an autism thing. I get real sensitive to light when I'm tired. I always hated my mother turning on the light in my room when she wake me up for school. I would pull the covers over my eyes. I would get used to the light once I started waking up. But I used to be so slow every morning when I had to get up early for school so my mother called me the pokey little puppy. I think my mother had to wake me up earlier just so I have time to do everything, eat, brush my teeth because I'd be so slow. Now I don't have that problem anymore.

When I was a child my sensory experiences were really different then they are for me even now. I do not even understand it but I believe that I went from a more severe form of Autism to the high functioning state I am now. My sensory perceptions are fairly normal now with the exception to really loud noise or textures on my skin (especially dirt or grease). I wake up and see immediately now but when I was a child it was far different. I can sympathize with people who still have moderate to severe sensory problems. I mean I remember how intense the light was and how much it hurt. I remember how certain smells drove me insane. My uncle's apartment was the worst. I would go inside and the smell was so intense that I had to get out. I had to escape that room immediately. It was horrifying. My mom didn't understand it either. She tried to force me to come back in. I wish for even a moment my mom could have felt the intense sensation. I also couldn't eat certain foods because of the texture, color, smell, ect. I remember the day care I had to stay in punishing me for not eating everything on my plate. They literally tried to force me to eat it. I really resent the fact that NTs are so controlling and unsympathetic to other people's experiences. It was also unhealthy for a developing child to be forced to take a nap after every meal and not be allowed to go outside and play. Yes I'm serious. They would force me to take a nap after each meal I didn't eat everything they put on my plate and I literally never got to go outside and play. It felt like serving time in a concentration camp because they didn't realize it but they were torturing me.

i have light sensitivity and it fluctuates. But it is basically there all the time. The hard part is i love having heat on my skin and being int he sun, so i wear a BIG hat and DARK sunglasses.
I have lots of wrinkles around my eyes from squinting.
I love the heat and the light but i just cannot look at it too much. it hurts.

I am an artist and my studio resembles a cave. I do not work in natural light but in an unusually dark space. it suits me.