Over the past five years of living independently, I had many bouts of being unwell.

As much as I didn’t want to admit, humans require sleep. Most of my life I saw sleep as a bad thing.

For over three decades, I had seen sleep to miss what was going on in the world.

Like I was going to miss something.

Until recently, I was not being honest with myself for the past five years because of this.

A few weeks ago, I had an episode and crashed and burned.

At that point I accepted the reality that sleep is a necessity.

Many autistic people struggle with sleep. I am no exception.

Realizing, accepting, understanding, and acknowledging this as a necessity rather than a form of punishment brings things in a different light.

Understanding that I am not being “drugged” and that my medicine does more than aid me to sleep.

I have learned that it helps me be a more grounded person and able to function in society.

Through this, I had to accept the effect that autistic burnout plays in my life in the outside world.

That it is OK to do what is necessary to recover from it when I must. This included napping.

The key factor is to not be critical when napping is a must and other things in life can wait.

My overall health is more important than something in the world, digital or in real life.

I am living a much better life now and I must accept that this is the way things are for me.

Life can be challenging but sleep and recovering from bouts of being overwhelmed is a necessity.

It is a part of my overall makeup just as much as the other sectors of my life are.