These factors lead to a large number of symptoms. If a region of the brain becomes too inhibited, too stressed, it can shut down at times when it shouldn't. Extreme disorders will lead to such shutdown a great amount of the time. If a part of the brain is shut down or inhibited, it is asleep, even if the organism is awake. What we call sleep is really a coordination of sleep throughout the nervous system so that certain busy regions of the brain have a chance to reset the sensitivities towards more reception of excitation.
Factors described in the mud swamp essay also contribute to the problems with sleep.
Should a center of the brain shut down, it can have a great affect on behavior and logic. The center of the brain most likely to shut down is the emotional switchboard for reasons stated earlier. If that center of the brain is often shut down, the brain loses its switchboard and the information needs to find new routes. In autism, a great amount of inhibition in the brain, early in life, causes a great amount of emotional pain for the individual so that individual learns to shut off the emotional switchboard, shut off feeling. The autistic savant develops great abilities that are not tainted by the stress that occurs through emotional participation.