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What's sleep like for you? (Patreon)

Published:
2022-03-23 21:38:03
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hello everyone! Time for another book-related question! 😄 If you happen to remember, please let us know how you'd like to be quoted (Anonymous is an option!)! Now time for the question...What is sleep like for you? 💤🛌

Comments

I HEART GIVING

Sleep? What's that? My issues have issues. Sleep is elusive unless I am really on my game. I have done all the tricks, sleep studies, and been profesionally treated for insomnia like a test animal. BUT, eventually I got into a regimen that works 100% as long as I check all the boxes. 1. Minimize any disturbances & noises. You might think you arent interrupted by the neighbors, or even your regfrigerator's ice maker...but it happens. Recording yourself sleeping and looking for noises is easy to see what interrupts you...because your snoring will change...sorry if you dont snore, that whatever noise you make while sleeping will totally change. I live out in the boonies, but we get noise. There is a private airstrip nearby and every once in a while someone flies in at night. There is a ranch next to us that has one very angry cow that makes sure everyone in a quarter mile knows she is POed. And then again...household appliances, including the AC can be an interruption. 2. Learn to meditate. This is a process. You train yourself to be calm. You might not get yourself to levitate, but the same process you use to meditate can allow you to unwind enough to relax and fall asleep. 3. Get rid of dirty air. There is a company called BlueAir and they make incredibly good aid filtrations systems. You dont want whatever is in your sleeping area to irritate you, this includes cat dander, pollen, and plain old dust. 4. NO EATING within 3-4 hours before your sleep time. You will sleep easier if your last meal is past your stomach. This can also help you regulate intake. 5. Medications. Make sure to review with you doctor anything that might affect your sleep adversely. Most people taking ADD/ADHD meds are painfully cognizant of this. Our meds are not designed to sleep on. 6. If you are diabetic or have hydrations problems, drinking 8-16oz of water before bed can keep you from morning complications, dry mouth, and irregular blood sugar. Water is the only excepition I make for #4. 7. Make sure you feel safe where you are as much as possible. Subconsciously this can wreak hacov on your sleping plans if youre not feeling safe. 8. Brush them teeth. Sounds funny, but if you go to sleep with dragon breath and you get in a position that you get a wiff...it can easily wake you up...or make you dream of making villagers run to the hills with your powerful breath weapon. This will also make your partner happy ;) 9. Ultra high thread count sheets...sheets so comfy that you fel like you might slide off the bed. This isnt for everyone, but finding your favorite sleeping environment where youre excited about crawling into greatness really helps you relax. 10. make sure youre comfy on air temperature. If the temperature in your sleeping area isnt perfect to you, you should make it so. You might ask why all this? Its simple, I dont ever shut down unless it go through my wind-down process. Feel free to DM me if there are questions, I am in Discord.

Brendan Minto

I try and utilise a wind down by focusing on breathing to get to sleep but my sleep is always brooooooken. Everytime I wake up the jukebox in my head is playing a different song, which is usually catchy enough to wake my brain up which means I have start to try and wind down and "switch off" all over again. If I wake within 2 hours of my alarm time then I might as well just get up because my brain refuses to shutdown knowing it will be back online again soon. (Brendan, 42)

Craig Martin

It has always taken me a while to get to sleep at night because, even though I'm tired so much of the time, my mind likes to stay active. I tend to have many vivid, colorful dreams and remember them after waking. Although I'm in my late 40s, I was only recently diagnosed, and started taking Vyvanse a couple months ago. Since then, I tend to wake up often at night, about every 1 - 2 sleep cycles (1.5 to 3 hours). I tend to wake up less in the middle of the night. Towards morning, I tend to wake up and fall back to sleep in short bursts. Occasionally, especially if I've had too much caffeine or upped my stimulant dose, or just randomly, I'll wake up for an hour or more at night. I have a long history of waking up at least once at night, but it's been a lot more since the medication. (Craig, 48)

Kate2Late

Getting to sleep on time is a rare experience that I have to very deliberately choreograph and a single minor derailment can easily ruin all my efforts and wind up with me getting to bed after 2am. When it comes to actually falling asleep, most of the time it, at night, it seems to follow fairly easily after 5-10 minutes, but I do have a couple of nights here and there where it takes 15-30 minutes to fall asleep (especially if I get in bed before 1:30). Napping is difficult.. I usually only doze at best and seem to be actively thinking during the entirety of most of my naps. (Probably is not helped by my stimulant ADHD medication.) And waking up in the mornings is often a challenge. If I don't have a strong pressure to get me out of bed when I should start waking up.. I tend to roll back over for another 10-40 minutes only to startle myself awake with a realization that I'm running late now. In highschool I often used to sleep until <10 minutes before the school bus was to arrive and then I'd dash around my room getting dressed and sprint out the door just in time to catch the bus before it pulled away. There's no school bus for me anymore.. but I do practically the same thing to myself now while I'm working from home. Overall, sleep isn't a source of anxiety for me.. but I do worry often about GETTING to bed in the first place. (Kate, 25)

Xavi

I can fall asleep pretty easily, when I remember to sleep… I usually want to sleep at boring parts of the day… which aren’t always the best times to feel sleepy! (Xaviera, 40)

Peta Thames

I used to wake up with a start just at I was drifting off, my brain deciding to entertain itself by having a massive panic or chasing a gazillion random thoughts. I rarely slept well, always took me hours to get to sleep, then in the morning I'd struggle so hard to wake up and get up. Being diagnosed then getting medication was a game changer for my sleep. On stimulants my brain finally let me drift off to sleep! I now take a small dose of dexamphetamine every night before bed. This helped me get to sleep better and wake up better, but I still struggled to get out of bed. It was like trying to swim up through molasses to actually get up. I hated my "laziness". Eventually I tried a non-stimulant med, Intuniv (long acting guanfacine), and it melted the morning molasses away. I wasn't expecting that! It's made such a difference to the inside of my head in the mornings it's almost miraculous. Finally getting regular real sleep, at age 44, has been the number one single best thing to come out of my diagnosis and subsequent treatment with medications. I'm happy to be quoted by name (Peta Thames, 46)

Alex van Kampen

Feel free to quote as Drecon84 I used to have a lot of trouble falling asleep, lying awake for hours, sometimes deciding to just get up and do something else. With medication I tend to be able to put my mind in order before I get to bed so I can often just fall asleep. I also work harder and actually get to finish things so that my thoughts aren't with all my unfinished things. The sleeping itself is weird. I never remember my dreams and I usually don't even notice falling asleep. I just close my eyes, open them some time later and time has magically passed. I am instantly awake and energetic (as long as I didn't consume any alcohol or anything). I've noticed that it helps me a lot to stick to a strict schedule too. I always try to be in bed at the same time and wake up around the same time too. It does wonders for my ability to sleep I think.

Rick Buitenman

I either fall asleep instantly or not at all. My bedtime routine is planned around that, so that once I hit the pillows there is nothing to keep me awake. Which also means I always go to bed late, after my partner has fallen asleep. And I avoid doing anything that gets my brain to worry in the two hours before sleeping. It's the worrying and overthinking that I can't turn off that's a problem, something intense with bright lights like gaming actually helps, because once I stop, my brain is 'empty'. And then I need to go to sleep instantly, otherwise it may start up again. So often I first do my whole routing, washing, teeth brushing etcetera, then game, then go to sleep. What my brain does while brushing my teeth is a danger zone. I cannot sleep again after waking up, which means I have to be totally exhausted to be able to sleep in. I often wake up after two to four hours of sleep, and the only way to get more sleep is to get up and do something until I feel sleepy again. This doesn't always work equally well, sometimes it's 30 minutes, sometimes two hours and often not at all. Working from home has been a blessing in that it gives me larger buffer to catch up on sleep, especially since if necessary I can wake up 15 minutes before that Zoom meeting. An "upside" however is that I've lived with undiagnosed sleep apnea for many years, so I've gotten used to surviving on too little sleep. I can't sleep for more than 6 hours, and even on 4 hours sleep I'm more energized than I used to be before the apnea treatment. It only becomes a problem if I have like 3 bad nights in a row. One more thing: I have a built-in alarm clock. Even on days where I have to get up earlier I usually wake 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. Probs part of my coping mechanism against being late (I'm always stupidly early anywhere, because being right on time is impossible.)

Koenraad Jacobs

Relationship status with sleep: "It's complicated". Going to bed early is an absolute nightmare. Either I lay awake just way too energized to be laying in bed. My go-to is always something with screens. I go to my laptop, or I take my phone and/or tablet and starting watching Netflix, YouTube, playing games, ... Usually it sooths me way better and makes my eyes tire a bit more. Really when there are no screens involved I will stay up for hours. I feel like my natural point of going to sleep is like 2-3am at best. With screens tiring me, I can get to like 11pm-1am range. Aside from that I'd like to add something I've not seen anyone adding on here before. I'm only now receiving my diagnosis at 27, and that as brought along some major insecurities and self-esteems issues. These translate (and have always translated, really) into very serious and weird nightmares. This obviously also very much intervenes with the quality and amount of sleep I get. Usually these dreams include things related to not having control in some way. They also do get worse. This is not directly ADHD, I know, but I'm pretty sure these stem from a lifetime of not being diagnosed, feeling different and being pointed out I fail or don't perform, while I believe I'm usually doing all I can. Also, as always, I can be quoted, full name and all.

Drew Milloy

I have a patchy relationship with sleep too. As a kid I would usually find it really hard to drop off, and my mind would feel like it was working at 300%. I would regularly be tired due to not enough sleep. At college I found that I was usually at my best in the late evening after everyone had gone to bed, and that fit in nicely with my procrastinating my assignments until the night before they were due... Later in life I've also had issues with anxiety in the middle of the night, being unable to stop thinking about a certain thing (whilst adrenaline kept me awake). I've tried all kinds of things like keeping a voice memo or journal by my bed to capture any thoughts before bed. Tried having a screen time cutoff earlier in the evening but I impulsively break that all the time by wanting to look up information or check things. One interesting thing I started noticing when I got into mindfulness was that although I usually had an extreme wandering mind, often it would be the wandering thoughts that would lead me to sleep (I have dropped off accidentally a few times whilst meditating and this is what I noticed). So perhaps the conclusion is that my busy mind needs to run its course in order to facilitate sleep? Drew, 46, non-binary, UK [Happy to be quoted but bear in mind that I'm still waiting for a diagnosis, so I can't be sure my experiences are due to ADHD]

Peter Frambach

Sleep by nature a late night person, my mind stays busy. I love sunrises if I don’t have to wake up for them. Lol. Rough waking up though since I have a day job. Focus is harder with out enough hours rest. Or I sleep like a baby trying to make up for sleep missed earlier. Pete Frambach, 58, Diagnosed at 42, U.S. I don’t mind being quoted.

Gregory Saxton

I slept better as a child but have tended to be a night person since starting a family 26 years ago. Learning I have ADHD explains the overactive mind at night when there is no other source of stimulation. I seem to need to find one, almost like an addiction. Learning to meditate helped, but developing a consistent practice, is still beyond my grasp. I developed sleep apnea in my mid 40's, perhaps coinciding with a life changing knee injury. The injury meant no more impact oriented training —running, martial arts, etc—basically the things that kept me balanced and peaceful. That has led to no constructive outlet for a lot of nervous energy, and that's made nighttime's worse. Fast forward a decade. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few months back at 53. Have learned a lot from Jessica's videos. Something that has helped is wearing a mouth guard. For years Dentists have asked if I grind my teeth? Nope, my answer. learning this is common with ADHD led trying the mouthpiece. It took a week to get used to, but for some dumb reason, it helps. Seems to help with the sleep apnea a bit too? I don't mind being quoted.

Edward Pickering-Symes

I used to find it very hard to get to sleep until I had my diagnosis for combined-type ADHD and started taking stimulant medication in the morning and working very hard at work. I was diagnosed in my mid-forties. Now I no longer stay awake beating myself up for all the little things I did wrong in my life! This is thanks to good advice including from How to ADHD videos. I avoid screentime half an hour before bed. Reading a real book knocks me out. I also cut out caffeine completely. However, I often wake in the night hungry and I also wake early. I feel like I always have to eat because my brain is on overdrive all the time. This means I eat a banana near to bedtime which apparently is good because it contains a hormone I am lacking but also bad because eating late can keep your body too active at night. When I organise myself to get to bed and turn out the light by 10.30pm it makes a big difference to my productiveness and mood the next day. The rest of my household often stay up which does not help. Managing my sleep is one of the best things for managing my ADHD. Short-term memory and executive function are much better. You can quote me by full name. UK, aged late forties. Thank you.

Chelsea Clark

I struggle with going to bed and getting up in the morning but I actually fall asleep fairly easily and stay asleep well. I thought I didn’t have the adhd sleep struggles until I read a list of them and going to bed/getting out of bed was on the list. (Quote name is fine)

Anne Duguay

Sleep for me requires a lot of attention to habits. I was only recently diagnosed at the age of 50 but have realized for a long time that I need regular sleep habits to be able to function at a reasonable level. My ability to cope is so dependent on this. When my kids were young and there was little sleep, I was a hot mess much of the time. Boring as they are, routines are essential. Consistent bedtime practices, no screen time right before bed, lavender in the diffuser and hitting the hay at 9:30 is essential. I wake up at 5:30 am to make time for dog walking and meditation and then I'm off to work. No caffeine after 3 pm anymore - however now that I am on stimulant medication, I really don't feel the need for an afternoon coffee either. Keeping to these routines keeps the 'racing brain syndrome' at a minimum and alongside consistent twice-daily meditation allows me to sleep reasonably well most nights. You may quote me if you wish. Thanks so much for everything you do!

Chandelin

I’ve always struggled with sleep. Motivation to do anything for me is very hard because dopamine is not given easily. Sleep is just lying still doing nothing for hours. What a waste of time my brain says. But my brain feels like trash when I don’t get it. I have to tell myself that whatever I’m wanting to do instead of sleep will feel better to do after I sleep. (Quote how you like)

Xynariz

When I hear people talk about "sleep schedules", it feels like I'm listening a clique laughing about their inside jokes that I can't possibly understand. Sleep has a "schedule"? You mean, your body *actually* gets tired at specific times, and it *actually* feels restful when you wake? I thought those concepts were as real as the tooth fairy! My *life* has a schedule - I have to work at specific times, so I need to ensure I'm able to function at those times. And work must reign supreme in my life, because I need money to live. But when work isn't a factor, a 24-hour "schedule" is so arbitrary. Who picked 24 hours? Why does a "sleep schedule" have to coincide with "when the sun rises and sets"? Why can't I just go to sleep when I'm tired, and wake up when I'm not? It's wonderful to have days where I wake up to the solitude of a quiet midnight, and have other days where I wake up in time to see the mountains create gorgeous colors during sunrise or sunset. But, work isn't optional. So I have to fit this "schedule" that is chained to the earth's rotation. So I try to sleep at the "right" times - ideally, falling asleep before 2 am. But in order to actually fall asleep, one of three conditions has to be met: 1) My body and mind must both be tired, and willing to sleep. 2) I must push my body to its absolute limit, so that the urge to sleep is so strong it overrides my brain. 3) I must push my brain to its absolute limit, so that the urge to sleep is so strong it overrides my body. When condition 1 is met, it may look like "normal" sleep to some people. I go through routines: check the cats' water, then turn off the lights, then use the restroom, then brush my teeth, then fill my CPAP, then sleep. But each step of this process is painful, and sometimes my brain just refuses to move on. I've stayed up past the sunrise because even the thought of walking up the stairs to go to bed was just too exhausting. I've spent hours on the toilet because the thought of "brushing my teeth" was so mentally repulsive that it was easier to suffer the pain of my legs falling asleep than it was to actually put toothpaste on the toothbrush. I've laid in bed for five hours waiting for my brain to decide to stop processing information so that I can fall asleep for an hour before the alarm will go off. When condition 2 is met, it's usually because I have had multiple nights in a row of little to no sleep. At some point, my body screams "you are done, I am sleeping *now*." And honestly, when this happens, it's amazing. I don't have to coerce my brain into wanting to sleep! I just have to be careful, because if this happens while I'm supposed to be working, or during other commitments, that would be detrimental to my long-term goals. So sadly, I have to strive not to let this condition be met. When condition 3 is met, it's terrifying. One example of this was when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 started spreading in my area. When I thought about the worst-case scenarios, and how likely I believed them to be, my brain did its own equivalent of "doom-scrolling". I was unable to distract my brain with the normal "shiny things" - it was just hellbent on thinking through every single bad scenario it could think of. And then suddenly, the brain ran out of gas, and I was asleep. For twelve hours. I just don't understand how sleep is supposed to work for me. Intellectually, I understand the need for routines, for a circadian rhythm, for consistency. Logically, I can see the reasons that "an abnormal sleep schedule" can mess with someone's life. But all the understanding in the world does not translate, at all, into actions. No matter how much I'd like to "sleep well", my body and brain just absolutely refuse to cooperate. So I have come to accept that. My body and brain will (mostly) cooperate on nights where I have to work the next day, and on nights when I don't have to work, I let my body and brain do whatever they want. It's a good compromise. If I am quoted, "James Hutchings" or "James" or "James H." are all fine. Also, editing out some of my rambling is also completely fine! Male (he/him), 32, Utah, USA. And full disclosure, diagnosed with depression, and very strongly suspected but not yet diagnosed with ADHD.

Lost Paul

Please feel free to quote my name. How's sleep? I sleep the sleep of the dead once I fall asleep. Nothing can wake me. If my gf wakes up in the night, she soothes herself by talking to me. I will sometimes groan responses to her - and in one rare moment of coordination I even "booped" her nose with my index finger - but I never remember any of that because I sleep so soundly. I can usually even fall asleep pretty quickly once I make the decision to do so. But that's the problem. There's just so much stuff that I want to do, and I want to do it all before I sleep. After my gf falls asleep, I go down to the basement to play banjo. That sometimes helps with my restless legs, but it doesn't help me to feel like I want to sleep. When I lived alone, I often would decide to sleep when I noticed the sky starting to get a little brighter (I was self-employed back then). Now that I am an employee, and have no choice about getting up at 8pm, I always aim to be asleep before 1am. Sometimes I am, but mostly I am always able to find that one-more-thing that I simply must do before I can go back up to bed. So the goal of 1am usually ends up closer to 2am. My gf - who is understanding about almost everything else - always asks why I wouldn't want to fall asleep sooner. I would LOVE to do that!

Will Barber

Sleep never comes and medications/supplements don't really ever help.

Sara Star

I'm Sara, you can use my name. I have always had issues with sleep. I never slept. I did a sleep study at 19, that only showed my circadian rhythm was off, he thought it was because I was a kid. I also got diagnosed with bipolar. At 21 I got on antidepressants and nortriptyline to help me fall asleep. My depression got worse, I gained weight and developed sleep apnea. I was tested for narcolepsy. Treated with Adderall to stimulate me during the day for excessive daytime sleepiness. I have undiagnosed ADHD. I'm pretty sure all my problems could have been contributed to it, but no one ever tested me for it. Currently, I take medication to fall asleep, I don't stay asleep due to my sleep apnea, and I have terrible time waking up, and I'm exhausted all day. I drink 6-7 caffeinated drinks all day. I have anxiety and OCD, obesity, high BP, sleep apnea, all as comorbidities of ADHD. 😐

Donna L Whitlinger

I'm Donna. You can use my name. I'm a rare one, I guess. I have a sleep schedule and have had it for decades. I have always been able to sleep soundly, but it used to be that I went to sleep in the wee hours and got up around noon or whenever. That didn't fit the life I wanted. I have learned that I have a sleep wave that comes between 10:00-11:00 pm; I can fight through it pretty easily. If I do, I will be up most of the night. If I give in and go to bed, I will sleep until 7:00ish. I am very disciplined about going to bed on time.

Joshua Scharf

Profile: Name: Joshua Scharf Gender: male / he Nationality / Located in: German / currently Germany Age: 31, got diagnosed when I was 9 Presentation: Twice exceptional ADHD, primarily inattentive Medication: yes, since the initial diagnosis with a few breaks (stimulant medication on 4-6 days a week) you're welcome to quote me and use my name. Sleep feels like wasted time, so I tend to get as little as neccessary. I have so many things going on in my live, and sleep is just lost time. You lay down in the evening and wake up at some point and bam - several hours just disapeared. Falling asleep had been an issue in the past but progressive muscle relaxation works quite well to fall asleep. Or doing an association alphabet, which is my backup strategy if too much is going on in my brain. By using these strategies I didn't have any issues for the last years. Sometimes, when I weak up in the middle of the night I also stand up, work for 1-2 hours on one of my projekts / play video games and then go back to sleep.

Jessica Madsen

Hi, I’m Jessica Madsen and you can use my name. I’ve always loved sleep. I’ve only struggled with insomnia while pregnant. Disrupted sleep (hello children!) can destroy me. I was known as the girl who would fall asleep at parties, during movies, anywhere. It was joked that I must have narcolepsy. I recently read a brief article talking about mild narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleep syndrome or something similar??) is related to adhd. Wouldn’t you know, now I’m well medicated and I don’t need my daily naps anymore! Oh, and I’ve always been a crazy vivid dreamer. I would wake up feeling exhausted because I just participated in an 8 hour long thriller movie. Every night. Meds have helped me have normal dreams that I generally don’t remember. Aah sweet blissful sleep. When the kids allow me to.

Eileen Greenbaum

Name: Eileen G. Gender: Female/She Nationality/Location: United States Age: 33, diagnosed at 10 I give permission to quote me under the name of “Eileen G.” What’s sleep like for me? A constant battle. I always feel like a 3-year-old who doesn’t want to go to bed and is not sleepy. My logic tells me that a regular sleep schedule is important for a healthy mind and body; my ADHD brain tells me that there is so much more to think about, and sleep is a waste of time. I have recently turned to yoga nidra meditations through an app called “Insight Timer” that has been very effective for me in calming my mind enough to fall asleep. In the mornings I have been sitting outside for at least 10 minutes in direct sunlight to help my body recognize proper circadian rhythms. Between these two morning and evening routines, I reduce the amount of fluctuations in my sleep schedule, but it is always a constant battle.

Layla Green Touchet

I am okay with you quoting me in any way you'd like. Sleep has never been my friend. I literally sleep because I know my body needs it to heal and reset. As long as I can remember (I'm talking since I was like 4 years old), ice always had crappy sleep. All of the vivid dreams (I can still remember dreams from my childhood). I never stay in one place while sleeping even with sleep meds (I tried those for a brief period of time). And when I say I don't stay in one place, I mean I move like a wild animal in my sleep. I've dislocated my shoulder in my sleep at least 4 times. I've woken up kicking my husband in my sleep. If anyone is in the bed with me, I will end up sleeping literally on top of them at some point. My husband constantly has to wake me up to move because I've nearly pushed him out of the bed. Staying still doesn't exist in my sleep. My dreams are also vivid that I've actually thought my dreams were real life, and I didn't turn in homework assignments or didn't do things because I legitimately thought I did them because of my vivid dreams. Also getting to sleep is a huge struggle if I'm not completely exhausted. My legs and feet feel like theyre cramping and like I can never get comfortable. Sleep meditations usually help or having my husband lightly rub my back with his fingertips will help relax me. But those aren't guarantees for me, and melatonin is a no go for me because it makes my dreams worse. When I was doing my Autism evaluation, I was describing my sleep to my psychiatrist, and she actually stopped me and said "Layla, you know this is not common sleep, right?" And I was dumbfounded, because I've always told people I had cruddy sleep, but I guess I had never gotten deep into. She ended up diagnosing me with a REM sleep disorder that's basically the opposite of sleep paralysis. I met with my primary care physician (who is absolutely phenomenal and a complete gem) and told her what the psychiatrist said and gave her more explanation, and she thankfully didn't shame me for not telling her my whole sleep background. She expressed her concern about it especially with me hurting myself in my sleep in the past, and she referred me to a neurologist who specializes in sleep who I have an appointment with next week. So hopefully the neurologist will be able to enlighten me on what makes my sleep so chaotic despite trying sleep hygiene, meds, etc. Once they give me more information, I can try to remember to update this comment.

Kae(NWPA)

My sleep patterns are haphazard and never consistent. 😌😴😐

Nelka

Anonymous, please. Sleep is uncertain. I have no guaranteed way to manage it at all. Sometimes I sleep well - even when there is a lot of stress - and sometimes I cannot sleep (either can't fall asleep for hours or wake up after a few hours of sleep and that's it). The "cannot sleep well" is much more often, yep. And doing something about it just has no discernible effect. Sleep has its own moods, basically. What is often an issue and is very frustrating is that even when I get normal sleep hours - I wake up exhausted. And yeah, it does happen that sometimes I sleep for only a few hours and am rested and active. But not often. That seems to be an age issue, too - I am in my forties, and that wasn't an issue until my mid-thirties. Basically, sleep does not seem to depend much on what I do. I do need to do stuff about it, else it would be worse, I think. But still.

Kals

I have struggled with falling asleep since I can remember. I remember being a small child and being in trouble for not somehow magically deciding to go to sleep and then somehow being asleep immediately. If I go to bd before I am completely exhausted and practically falling asleep on my feet, I will likely be up all night staring at the wall, trying to fall asleep. My best sleep happens in the morning, which is unfortunate when I need to do adult things like go to work on time. I do what I can to make sleep possible -- I try to keep my room at a comfortably cool temperature, because I really need the weight of blankets on me, but can't sleep if I am too hot. I have queen-sized, super-heavy weighted blanket, which helps a lot. I have my lights set to start dimming an hour before what I think should be bedtime. I have a specific hour-long spotify playlist that I only listen to when I am going to bed, to try and make my brain respond to some kind of association there. If I'm still awake when the playlist ends, I get up, use the washroom, drink some water, and check in with myself to see if I am ready to try again, or if I need to do something for a while first -- read a book, do a sink of dishes, put the laundry in the dryer... I am perpetually exhausted. Sometimes drinking a cup of coffee helps when I am having trouble getting to sleep, I guess the caffeine is just enough stimulant to let my brain regulate itself and let me doze off.

Todd Holdsworth

OK with being quoted. Sleep is almost as important as breathing. My ADHD is waaaaaay worse without adequate sleep, and I learned this the hard way. Focus and cognition is significantly lower, and I don't know if I ever would've noticed had it not been for being in a job that requires maximum cognition. The way I behave around managing my sleep may be perceived as obsessive. Maybe I am, but the strong drive comes from thousands of hours being aware of my cognition level after sleep: Everything takes longer to do; Tasks requiring high cognition can take a very long time because my thoughts drift off continuously and my working memory isn't... working; Memory recall feels like it's more than halved; I walk around feeling like I have tunnel vision; Motivation for anything I'm not passionate about is non-existent; I shallow-breathe; I'm clumsy: I can have trouble understanding what people are talking about; I can't remember the best route to get to a place I haven't been to for a while; Driving can be scary. All of that can make me anxious, so I avoid losing sleep at almost any cost. It's just not worth quality of life being affected that much. But I had to crash and burn and learn the hard way before I actually did anything about it. I really tuned in and payed attention to what my body was telling me, from sleep and also from diet and (lack of) exercise. Sleep = #1 most important thing for an ADHD brain.

Karissa Honaker

Hello! You may use my first name ("Karissa"), but please not my last name. Sleep is not an easy thing for me. The only time I can fall asleep easily is when I'm not intending to fall asleep. Anytime I'm intentionally trying to sleep, my brain *loves* to think about all the things I didn't make time to think about during the day. It's most often the things that I feel the most anxious about. It's also not easy for me to stay asleep. While I'm sleeping, I'm most likely having vivid dreams or nightmares. I actually almost exclusively have nightmares. It's been going on so long that I just call them dreams, because it makes me sad to acknowledge that I'm having constant nightmares. Because of all this fun stuff, I'm exhausted most of the time and never feel like I'm getting enough sleep even if it's 9 hours a night.

Sara Durham

You are welcome to quote me. I have always been a light sleeper and it seemed like any little noise would keep me from falling asleep. If I'm woken up at the wrong time as I'm falling asleep, that's it for me -- it will take at least an hour to fall asleep after that. I am in my 50s and it's only been in the last few years that I've begun to stop seeing it as a personality defect and am trying to accept that it isn't my fault. I think I have been tired my whole life and one of the first things that brought me to therapy was that I was tired all of the time. Meds have significantly helped with daytime energy. Things that have worked for me: 1. My white noise machine has been a godsend. I've been using it for ~10 years and I have no idea how I got along with out it before. I did start using a fan a few years before that, but it didn't work as well. 2. I've been taking a sleep aid of some sort every night for the last few years. Melatonin seems to help quite a bit. Despite sleep aids and white noise, I have never woken up refreshed and I have never been a morning person. I did a sleep study and no obvious issues were found. I start to feel sleepy around 10PM, but often don't go to bed until 1AM. I think there are several reasons why I do this, such as wanting to take advantage of the time of day when I have no responsibilities and because it takes quite a few steps to get ready for bed. I also have noticed that I have been really thirsty at bedtime. I bring a large water bottle to bed with me and used to guzzle at least half of it. My therapist suggested that my thirst is an anxiety response because bedtime is anxiety-inducing for me. It very much is and I've been working on that. As a result, I have noticed I am somewhat less thirsty at night. If I ever wake up truly refreshed, it will probably be the happiest day of my life.

Adamina Carden

OK to use name I have a love hate relationship with sleep. I used to be very blase about my sleep, especially in my early 20s and now I try to make sure I am getting enough. I struggle to get to sleep and also waking up in the morning. I thought my shifted sleep cycle was just from years working late night shifts in hospitality but have recently realized I most like just have DSPD or a delayed chronotype along with my ADHD. My natural sleep hours are somewhere around 12am-2am bedtime to 9-11am wake. I often wake up multiple times through the night and waking up is a strugglebus most days. If I'm very tired from working out or a long week occasionally I will fall asleep early and sleep the whole night through with no interruptions but this is rare! I have been working on my sleep hygiene more the past couple of years (particularly no screens in the bedroom) and have found this has helped... it's hard to stick to though. But sometimes if I have a big day I have to talk to myself like a child and tell myself to go to bed.

Ryan Snead

Quoting me by name is fine. I have no requirements regarding attribution. Sleep is something I've been good at doing most of my life. I have a reputation for being able to sleep anywhere, any time, and in nearly any position imaginable. Normal levels of noise (e.g. less than a loud alarm clock) rarely bother me if I want to go to sleep. I think of myself as someone who can go to sleep easily, stay asleep all night, and will pretty readily wake up when the alarm does go off in the morning. This isn't perfectly true, but it is my usual experience throughout my life. In general, I require more sleep than my family and friends to function well. When my sleep health is good, I can stay on task somewhat better, and I'm more aware of time and space. But let's be real, I have often mistreated myself when it comes to going to sleep for a variety of reasons. Some examples: 1. late night revenge procrastination 2. not wanting to miss out on time with friends or family who seem to require less sleep 3. getting caught up in some project that I just can't bring myself to leave for tomorrow 4. just plain procrastination where I'm trying to get something done at the last minute or even overdue. There's good reason to think that my ADHD has contributed to the impulses to engage in things that lead me to sleep less than I should. The fantasy that emerges from timeblindness where I believe something won't take as long as it does is another common contributor to getting into sleep deficits. Yes, I've been either counseled or shamed by doctors, parents, and other authority figures for not getting enough sleep. Yes, I've done things ranging from funny to dangerous because I was unaware and operating on too little sleep. In spite of these peculiar challenges to sleep habits, I still believe the pattern for me is one of sufficient sleep health. While the abuse is common, I tend to recenter after a few days of not letting myself get enough sleep on getting what is to me a normal amount of sleep around eight hours per night. I mentioned before that my sleep hasn't always been easy and normal. There have been a few times in my life related to either illness or life circumstances when sleep has either come too easily or has become too restless. What I mean by sleep coming too easily is daytime sleepiness following normal or excessive nighttime sleep. My sleep doctor used the term hypersomnia to describe it. Another poster mentioned "mild narcolepsy" which might have a relationship to ADHD which may be connected, and I find that interesting. On the other end, periods of restlessness for me refer to an inability to stay asleep long enough to get adequate rest. This restlessness I have started to connect recently to being chronically overstimulated.

Aimee Fournier “Bug”

My mind doesn’t work until 9 pm then I’m going from podcasts to YouTube and a half of a film until 2 am when I drift off for an hour and a half then it’s up and down until 6 am when I can’t get back to sleep. Maybe a nap. But only if I am bored. Heat and cold affect me. The cat anything. I don’t sleep soundly. But when I’m up I’m up. With a lot of energy that drops off after my meds wear off and doesn’t kick in again until 9 again. You can use my name. Everyone knows I have ADD if I’ve said so or not lol

Wendy

Sleep is difficult. It's yet another area of my life plagued by guilt, because if only I used "good sleep hygiene," I'd be well-rested and ready to tackle the day. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) I'm always tired. At bedtime, I don't want to leave the relaxing activity I'm enjoying. And when I do, I have to brush my teeth (still a challenge for me). Then, it's toss and turn for who knows how long - some times I get comfortable right away. Sometimes it takes hours. And then, the greatest punishment known to man: the alarm clock. Mornings are so hard for me, I'm usually angry, uncoordinated and sometimes so queasy I throw up. And it all got much worse when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and forced to sleep with a CPAP machine. I HATE going to bed and rarely manage it before midnight. Short-acting Ritalin let me take great afternoon naps in the student center in college. Extended-release Adderall kept me up half the night with a racing heart. No, I've not taken meds for a decade. I'm in my fifties and was diagnosed in college in my twenties. It's OK to use my name.

Laura MacAlpine

You can quote me. It takes me a while to get to sleep, I hear all movements in the house, I wriggle about and toss and turn all night, I need but rarely get a full 8 hours. I take pharmacy OTC sleeping tablets when the lack of sleep gets to me.

Liz Bianchini

I desperately need 8-9hrs of good quality sleep. It always takes me SO LONG to get to sleep though. Nighttime is when my meds have worn off and I have limited distractions available to keep my brain from running a million miles a minute with thoughts - to do list for the next day, what I'm going to wear in 2 days, things I need to do for work, replaying conversations in my head, imagining how hypothetical (and extremely unlikely) conversations might go, etc. Trying to sleep so I can rest from my day being exhausting, is exhausting in and of itself - annoyingly ironic

Rich Powell

minimum 7.5 hours or I don't feel like myself. 8.5-9 is ideal. I can soooo relate to Liz here...it takes SO LONG to get to sleep. This has been a bit better since I started medicating. Once I'm asleep, almost nothing can wake me up, even the alarm clock. Waking up is a whole process itself.

Ben

Erm I manage to sleep fine so long as it's after 3am.

Chefda

I can get to sleep quite easily virtually anywhere. I function better on 7-8 hours, but 5-6 can do. However, my attitude to sleep is that it’s the enemy. The two things that make me go to sleep are hating being knackered and the fact that my body will just shut down after a certain point of no sleep.

Jordan Street

I sleep like clockwork. 6 hours that is it. I can fall asleep in minutes, and will wake up 6 hours later. Which Is annoying when I am really tired and go to bed around 9 and wake up at 3. (I am okay with being quoted)

Andman144

Sleep is wonderful, but feels like a trap to me. It takes me a long time to fall asleep, sometimes up to 3 hours, and waking up is a chore. My body just wants to stay asleep. If I don’t have a specific thing getting me out of bed, I’ll end up in bed for hours after I should have gotten up. -Andrew, in California

Matthew Peter Eggebeen

Sleep... It is elusive but incredibly important to my mental health and functionality. While I was a natural night owl through high school and college, and still greatly enjoy staying up doing whatever interests me at the time when I can, I have a job now that I need to wake up at 5:00AM to catch the bus for. As a result, I've had to prioritize sleep and attempt to self enforce a 9:00PM bedtime. That is a real challenge some times. I tend to always think I can stay up an extra half hour, which quickly turns into a whole hour... sometimes two. Then I'm not even extra tired at 9:00PM the next night, but will have consistently had a rough mental health day. Oh! And I can't forget to mention that daylight savings royally screws with my head for about two weeks every time it happens. -Matt E. a "twice exceptional" equipment specialist from Wisconsin.

Gabriel Reyes

I grew up as a night owl and am wondering if ADHD was partially caused by just being exhausted during the development of my brain up through high school? When I didn't have to wake up in the morning for anything I would naturally start staying up later and later, often until like 3 or 4am. In college, when I was more motivated, if I had any 8am classes my whole semester would be ruined! Despite trying to have good sleep hygiene! Now I'm a bat biologist for my career! But it turns out there are still lots of morning meetings and what not, and I'm also a little less of a night owl as I've gotten older (still a night owl, but prefer a bedtime of around 12 or 1 instead of 3 or 4, and I have a hard time sleeping past 8:30am. While I think I sleep pretty well when I'm somewhat in sync with my natural sleep cycle, I do kind of procrastinate going to bed even when I'm tired, I think because I often feel like I haven't had enough veg and zone out time during the day. Also when I'm stressed I wake up really early in an anxious mood, and vyvanse kind of makes it hard to get a good night of sleep, though not super consistently. I try to take it early enough to not interfere, but that often means it kicks in when I'm still super groggy and not ready to start my day. But I'm curious how many others with ADHD were just night people during development and just completely exhausted while we were supposed to be learning how to focus and learn?

Abalt0

Sleep for me is extremely elusive. I sleep probably three - four hours each weeknight and six over weekend days. I have apnea so sleeping even with the CPAP is problematic. I know it is not great for my health, but I just cope with the hustle caused by extreme procrastination due to forgetfulness, or just energy drain from parenting two neurodivergent children and taking care of my spouse who was born with disability, and continues to slowly physically decline. But I get through it.

Thomas Bryant

My "prescriptionist" put me on Trazadone, an anti depressant. During the trials they discovered that in low doses it acts like a sleep aid. I couldn't be happier with it.

Ken Mc

Going to sleep, usually, has not been a problem for me during my first 40+ yrs pre-treatment and my nearly 10 yrs post-treatment. If I can avoid hyper-focus and ruminating, I am asleep shortly after my head hits the pillow because I am so exhausted. The emergence of the internet and smart phones have not been a help in this regard. I can usually rack a solid 6 hrs. Maybe stretch it into a fitful 7 hrs. After 6 hrs., if anything wakes me up, I am switched on, but not fully functional, and there is no going back unless my body is so exhausted my brain never gets a foothold in reality. I figure I average 6 hrs. a night but, 7 or 8, regularly, would really be nice. Sleep is the first casualty in the ADHD war. Pre-treatment allowed my "H" to compensate for the lack of sleep. I was also a raging jerk more times than I care to count. Now that I am medicated, the "H" is subdued and much of my motivation left along with it. Now, the lack of sleep, along with age, and a muted Hyper-activity has sapped me of most of my drive to be active, engaged or motivated. I use carbs and caffeine to compensate, much to the detriment of my health. It does make me wonder, wistfully, what I would have been like as a medicated 20-something instead of the burnt-out 50 something I am now. Sigh.

Evelyn Brylow

Definitely too late, but sleep is one of the things that I am really working on. Because I feel better when I get out of the house and shower in the morning, I am “forcing” myself into being a morning person. This means getting up before 8 am every single day (yes including weekends) and usually at 6am. Because I’m a teenager I need a lot of sleep so I am working on keeping my sleep schedule closer towards falling asleep at 9:30 so I get enough sleep. I use melatonin (sometimes) to fall asleep, but the thing that I’ve been working on that has the greatest impact is not using my phone in bed. Because I love to read and have no time awareness when I do (uh, lets read for a bit time:8:15…. Hmm I finished this book that’s weird time: 2:30. Oh heck, I was supposed to fall asleep 5 hours ago. Whoops) I often will have a friend or family member video call with me for a bit so I don’t start reading before I head to bed (Should this end up in the book, please mention me by name)

Natasha Karek

I am a night shift nurse and could sleep all the time. But on my off days I can sleep when my head hits the pillow. This could even be at 8 pm. If I wake up for any reason I am up. This is why my loving husband lets me sleep where ever I fall asleep. I feel with ADHD if I wake up for any little thing my brain is full speed. (Tasha is fine).

Jason Gibson

It's very hard for me to wake up, going to sleep seems to be fine because I stay up until my brain is tired, so sadly I either stay up really late, or just pass out on the couch, or end up wanting to go to bed early without being able to finish what needs to be done (laundry, etc). I almost always listen to music when sleeping, it has really helped to just fall asleep. I've tried sleeping early every day, and end up waking up middle of the night (sleep at 9pm-10pm wake up 3am) etc. I think just like everyday of our lives, it's a day by day thing to deal with, and sometimes it's not so hard, and other times it's so difficult it can cause waves in our relationships.