It is from http://www.autism-help.org/comorbid-dyspraxia-autism.htm. I should mention that it is common for people on the autistic spectrum to also have dyspraxia.
Dyspraxics (along with people who have similar conditions on the Autism spectrum) may have difficulty sleeping since there is an inability to force the brain to stop thinking and “shut down”. A dyspraxic is nearly always thinking about several unrelated things at once, (the inverse is also possible, with only one dominant thought occupying the dyspraxic’s entire attention span at any given time) so this may cause easy distractability and daydreaming. It is quite easy for someone with dyspraxia to concentrate entirely on a particular thought instead of on the situation at hand.
I like this description because it explains something that I knew about myself but didn't quite understand. I have a lot of trouble sleeping. My mind races gleefully through ideas, stories and memories. I used to do a lot of stress thinking at night and thought that once I got those demons under control that I would sleep easily. It didn't work, I just have a very busy brain. I have had trouble sleeping my entire life and have tried the whole gamut of insomnia behavioral modification tricks. They didn't work. Now I sleep peacefully within 30-90 minutes of going to bed with pharmaceutical intervention.
This busyness of my mind isn't just at night, I am always thinking about something and am often distracted by my own thoughts. My brother recently did a funny impression of me as a child daydreaming. I never thought that it was that obvious - although I did get caught doing it quite a lot. In his impression, I had a far away look in my eyes, with relaxed facial muscles and an overall peacefulness in my demeanor. I knew that it was dead on as soon as I saw the expression.
People with dyspraxia can have generally poor social skills due to emotional problems and/or a limited ability to ‘read’ situations and people’s body language. They may have a literal use of language and so find it hard to understand phrases, idioms and/or sarcastic conversation. People with dyspraxia are not purely autistic in the sense that they normally desire to interact with others but merely lack the ability to do so to some extent. Due to this inability to understand other people, most dyspraxics find themselves alone because it may be more comfortable for them. This inability to be around and relate to other people may cause severe frustration in a dyspraxic that may manifest as unusual emotional immaturity in childhood.There it is in a nutshell, a problem that I have struggled with throughout my life I have great discomfort dealing with groups of people, especially in a party environment or other social setting. I do well with one or two people but get me in a group and I am overwhelmed. I am described as shy - which is accurate. Missing from the shy explanation though is the terror that I will say or do something wrong. I will be misunderstood or misunderstand someone else or thought of as an idiot or... - in short, go down in the fiery flames of embarrassment. Add in my excellent memory for verbal information and I get to relive the embarrassing situations over and over again. I've lived long enough now that I can say to myself "no big deal, nobody else cared/noticed" but I still remember how I felt then.
Strangely though, put me in a work situation and I do all right. I am comfortable with giving presentations and speaking in meetings. I once gave a talk in the middle of a crammed university centre about life as a lesbian on campus. I didn't freak out or feel uncomfortable doing it. I think that I do better because in non-social settings because there are rules. I speak, other people listen and then they ask questions or make comments which I do or do not respond to - simple, clear and easy. Social situations are like a free-for-all, there are no clear rules to guide you through them.
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