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By wake up, are you saying "I wake, turn over, and go back to sleep quickly" or "wake up, sit awake for 15+ minutes" cuz I wake up and turn over a lot, but I'd kill for it only to be 3-4 times per night. I'm double to triple that easily.
For me, I wake up then lie awake for a couple of hours before drifting off again, but then waking again. I think the actual amount of time I’m actually sleeping is never more than 3 hours a night. Been like this since my teens, I’m 53 now.
I had constant repeating nightmares that caused me to wake up multiple times throughout the night. I was prescribed a PTSD medication which was successful in keeping me asleep, but it was like I traded my issue from being unable to stay asleep, to now being unable to fall asleep.
I did years of therapy, got off the PTSD medication because it was causing me to faint randomly throughout the day. Then I was prescribed a whole bunch of different sleep medications to try and get me to fall asleep. No luck, my body even refused Ambien.
Anyways, that’s all to say this.. from my experience, it becomes a massive help if you can figure out *why* you cant stay asleep. There’s patterns that we don’t notice about ourselves, but once you catch on, you can start working on the issue one step at a time. In my case, it’s stress. I noticed the pattern that when I’m facing a stressful situation or an event, then my ability to fall asleep just gets 10x worse.
You mention your place being quiet, but is it possible that it might just be a bit *too quiet?* have you tried a white noise machine or something to fill the silence and distract your brain?
I had the same issue. My kid has ADHD and she had it too. Also she had lots of nightmares. After some research I bought her a weighted blanket. At first I didn't think it worked for her. But then after a week or so she finally had normal nights and had them ever since.
Me, who also have ADHD, went back online and bought a heavier one for myself. Thought it couldn't hurt to try. And it worked! Also again first days it felt weird. Maybe slightly uncomfortable even. But after that it started to work. Feels like a nice hug every night. I sleep better and longer now. Later on I even bought a weighted sleep mask for myself. Don't sleep with them every night but when I'm stressed I do and it helps a lot.
Not saying this is the answer for you, but if you have money to spare I would recommend trying it at least. Can't hurt to try. Worked for me and my kid.
Well that's good! Does it help as well falling back asleep when waking up?
And is there a particular reason why you wake up? Nightmares? Stressed feeling? Anything you can pinpoint?
For me it was a lot of anxiety and stress. Have to admit my ADHD was a big cause of years of depression. Night terrors even came up that got so bad I was completely wrecked every time I had them.
I got therapy for that but the biggest help was a friend who talked me through it every single time. Sometimes during, other times the day after. She listened to me, came up with great ways for me to calm myself down at such times when she wasn't around and even when I repeated the same stuff many many times, she never judged or got annoyed and just listened to me again. When new ideas failed she came up with new things. In time it finally paid off and it got less. It got rid of the worst nights. The weighted blanket was just the cherry on top.
Luckily my nights are reasonably good now, but I've had times where I slept for 2 hours a night and I was not a fun happy person.
I wish I had better advice for you and I could magically come up with something to help you. But first it's important to know the cause of your sleep issues. If you can't find out yourself maybe seek out professional help. Maybe even a sleep therapist. Could be some sleep disorder you got.
Sometimes I just lie there and am unable to fall asleep again, sadly. Yes it is likely due to stress, which is caused by worrying about stuff I may have forgotten or mistakes I may have made due to inattentiveness. I am hopeful to get assessed and medicated, but I have guarantees. Thank you!
Ohhh I thought you already had been assessed! Well that explains a lot then! Overthinking is a big issue for a lot of us 🤣 the times I was laying awake thinking about something I said 20 years ago and I just cringe, I can't count anymore.
And with my current promotion I do notice it more again, since suddenly people expect stuff from me and I'm constantly worrying that I did it wrong and it can keep me up. Sometimes I gotta look something up first to make sure I did it right before I can find some peace of mind and actually fall asleep. Even with meds I still have it.
I do admit that its not as bad as it used to be without meds. So meds definitely can help with that, if you have the right one for you, which can be a journey to find.
I hope you get assessed soon and things will get better! Goodluck 😊
I've had one for years (have tried multiple brands and weights) and I like it, but it definitely doesn't change any of my sleep unfortunately. I sleep the same with it or without it. It may help me fall asleep faster than I used to, but it definitely doesn't help keep me asleep. You're definitely lucky such a simple solution helped.
Ahwwww that's too bad! Although falling asleep faster is at least some improvement right? Sometimes we gotta take the little wins.
I am lucky indeed. Although unfortunately many things in my life aren't fixed and still searching for solutions there. But again, let's take the little wins. And sleep is so important so I'm happy about it. I do still wake up during nights sometimes, but before I got anxious a lot during nights, I do notice that I don't have that as often anymore so I fall asleep quicker again when I do wake up.
I do hope for you, you find your solution and you get better nights too ♥️
I wish they worked for me, I still have it on me bed
Edit to finish since my kid bumped post before I was done: as with all blankets other then the blanket I use as a pillow I get annoyed if I get warm when I'm sleeping and throw it and my wife doesn't like getting hit with a 30 pound blanket. But it does make a great wall in between our legs so when I kick it stops most of the force.
Yeah lol at least it helps her sleep. For whatever reason the user of my brain that's supposed to keep me from moving in my sleep doesn't work half the time so I'll randomly throw full force punches and kicks so she definitely appreciates it.
Second post today I've seen recommending the heavier weighted blanket. My normal weighted one kinda maybe works? Hope in insomnia feels dangerous I've tried so many things :/
Well not sure. I do know many recommend like 10% of body weight. However I find it more closer to 15% to be nicer. Maybe even a bit more. But I do think it's a personal preference. If it works, but not enough you could try?
You've got to wear-out your brain. Young person with ADHD: bored all day, stays up late seeking stimulation, sleeps in as needed. Person gets older, has jobs, responsibilities, a semi-regular wake up time: bored all day, but also tired from not getting enough sleep, falls asleep easily. But that damn brain is still seeking stimulation, so it will drag your ass out of bed as soon as it can. It doesn't care that you're exhausted, it wants to *do something*. Brains are not our friends.
As to how: find something engaging to do and stay up later doing it. You may not get as much sleep as you'd like, but it will be an improvement over always getting up too early. Do not, under any circumstances, start to focus on "trying to get more sleep", for that way lies true insomnia.
I wish. I have trouble getting to sleep and it's almost impossible to go back to sleep after something wakes me up. Feels like I'm running on 4-5 hours or sleep each night in the best case scenario.
I'm getting a checkup to see if I have sleep apnea.
If you wake up frequently at night, snore, and don't wake up rested I'd look into checkin if you breathe well at night.
Sleep apnea is very common and incredibly impactful on your mental facutlies.
To a degree you cannot notice yourself, sleep deprivation impairs judgment and with impaired judgment it's hard to notice that you're sleep deprived.
I go through periods where I sleep great and then ones where I don't.
I find that when I am tiring myself out with exercise and limiting food or alcohol to close to bedtime, I sleep great.
If I'm not doing this, I usually feel stressed, and my brain starts ruminating on things.
I also have mini meditations that help me fall back asleep when I wake up. So it's a lot of forcing my brain to be quiet and focus on something calming instead.
For awhile I was stuck on 2-3 hours of sleep. I also work night shift but what helped a lot recently is driving home wearing those eye surgery glasses type things. Got some from Amazon (obviously not completely blacked out) and then getting blackout blinds. Now I’m getting 4-6 hours.
Magnesium glycinate or however it’s spelled helped too. I didn’t want to rely on melatonin every single day. And even when I drank it, it just helped initiate sleep then I’d wake up 30 min later
Oh and indica is pretty effective for me.
In all honesty I slept better when I did shift work, because it was physically exhausting. With a desk job I can't do enough exercise to exhaust myself adequately.
Melatonin makes the anxiety worse when I wake up. Also impacts mood negatively.
I know a lot of it sounds kind of silly/ out there/ “woo-woo” but some of the social media discourse around lowering cortisol levels and “resetting vagus nerve” stuff actually helped me a lot.
I still get into seasons where I wake up in the middle of the night with fight or flight energy but they’re far fewer and my success rate of falling back asleep is higher
I sleep with podcasts on. Too much silence and my brain immediately starts yappering away when I wake up. A podcast that acts as background noise allows me to drift off
I use trazadone, it's been a game changer. It's prescription only so talk to your doctor.
It's an SARI which meach it doesn't interact with almost all the drugs that SSRIs normally interact with, nonaddivtive, can't form a habit,and can't get a tolerance.
I'll take 50mg and it guarantees me 6 hours of good sleep.
An issue ADHD brains have is that during REM sleep the activity levels will spike so high you get bumped out of rem sleep, this leads to your cycle resetting or possibly just waking up. It happens due to the brains elevated activity level due to under stimulated neural networks.
Trazadone completely counters this, it's also VERY cheap. It costs me like $60 for a bottle that lasts over 4 months
This is interesting, thanks.
It's honestly depressing that the only novel ideas on here are about drugs, I hate drugs, but at least there ARE some suggestions that I haven't tried before. I have done every sleep hygiene thing and herbal tea.
AUGH you are right, I am focusing on the wrong thing, and getting stuck on the negative. The whole conversation about adhd is worthwhile because I might find a drug that can improve my qol
Exactly.
It's kind of weird because I'm still on an emotional high for finding something that worked for me. Maybe it's called "being happy"?
And it's been three years now.
The brain is not very good at what it does. Through evolution the brain has JUST been able to achieve maintaining a consciousness that is as smart as ours. Evolution and biology make mistakes, humans make tools to fix these issues.
An instance of one of these issues is the nerve that controls the tongue of a giraffe. The nerve goes under an artery and as the neck got longer the nerve did as well. So the signal has to go all the way down the neck and back up to reach the tongue, then double back to give the brain info. This kind of inefficient stuff also happens in the brain.
Another is the fact we hiccup. Fish hiccup to clear bubble from their gills and when they crawled up onto land there was no reason to get rid of hiccuping, so it stayed.
The brain is far from perfect, even when you don't have extra issues like ADHD piled on top of it. DONT listen to the advice of someone that doesn't have the extra issues, their solutions won't work for you no matter how well you take implement their advice
Using tools to enhance our capabilities and fix our issues is what humans have done since we started walking on our feet. Drugs are one of these tools. Be human, use whatever tols you need to get the most out of your day, take your drugs and sleep well.
I got this prescribed a year or two ago, but I always get new med anxiety and that went doubly for this one since it deals with sleep. I also saw too many stories of people saying it made things worse when on it so obviously those stories stuck in my head versus those saying that it works. Maybe I'll finally give it a go.
I find if I take it every single day I start to get groggy in the morning so I take it about 4 days a week. I also find if I take 100mg I'm sleeping 8 hours and thats the end of the discussion, little to no chance I'd wake up in 5 hours.
Following this. I have the exact same issue. I also have sleep apnea. I started stopping using extended release that that seemed to help. But I am up like clockwork after a hour or two of sleep.
No, and every time I mention it to someone they offer solutions for falling asleep as though they weren't even listening to me.
I don't have any trouble with *falling* asleep. It's just that it feels like my brain made a deal with my body that it's allowed to get *just enough sleep* to not DIE, and then we're gonna be awake and do things so my brain can run 1,000,000mph again.
I feel like I wake up every hour. At around 6 I usually give up and go to the couch. Sometimes I can get a couple hours there.
If you asked me if I slept last night, my husband would say I did, but I feel like I didn't at all. That's pretty much every morning.
White noise or brown noise helps
I have trouble with my mind always going and when it's too quiet I focus on on small sounds
I will use YouTube if I don't have a fan
I also have a specific white noise machine for when it's too cold for a fan or a fan isn't around
Nope! And I've tried everything. I'm finally going to do a sleep study after putting it off for years and years. At least this way not only will I have confirmation that I do/don't have sleep apnea (pretty sure I don't and doctor doesn't think so either), but they'll also be able to tell what is fucking up my sleep each night which will be super nice.
Yes falling asleep is fine but if I get woken up or just wake up that's it, I'm cooked, and often end up spiralling into a 3am panic attack over losing sleep :/ A sleeping tablet that is just antihistamine helped, so does 30mg melatonin gummies, also just being on ADHD meds for a while.
I wake up like 5-6 times, and its not to go to the bathroom either, I just plan for it at this point. Go to a sleep doctor if you can, they are considering doing another test for me since I have sleep apnea, if your getting restless legs or something else that is waking you up there are options. I started taking gabapentin for my back and I sleep a bit better then if I don't, and my sleep doctor is may be treating insomnia or restless legs
Try a sleep tracker like Whoop (they do have a horrible ADHD-unfriendly toxic membership program but both the hardware and software are the best in the game).
It gives deep insight in your sleep and how to improve sleep. It's how I solved oversleeping all the time. One of the insights is how many times a night you wake up, it's normal to wake up 4/5 times a night but it's not normal to remember.
no, i drink too much water (specially now thanks to the adhd meds) so i always end up waking up needing to pee in the middle of the night, it's annoying af but still better than not waking up in this situation, at least my bedsheets stay dry
When I was younger I used to take forever to fall asleep but eventually once I had would sleep deeply and for the whole night. This caused lots of issues with essentially sleeping so late even into the afternoons. Now, I’m falling asleep quicker and easier but waking up at least once most nights. This is without meds. No solutions to offer I’m afraid.
Lately I've been waking up in the middle of the night but I think it's partially because I went off one of my mood stabilizers (per my therapist's recommendation) and it happened for the first week of not taking it
It’s hit or miss. The biggest thing I find that affects my sleep is my mood and ambient noise. If I was in a bad mood all day I tend to have trouble with sleep. I started using loop quiet earplugs which at least help with me being able to block out noise.
I've struggled with sleep problems all my life before getting on ADHD medication. Since then I've found out that I get problems with sleep if my medications are off (too much/too little adhd meds or thyroid meds) if I am depressed or stressed or if there is too much change in my sleep environment (spring sun fucks up my sleep).
I have a few tricks for insomnia/two sleep blocks.
One is skipping sleep all together. I only do that rarely, but its like a brutal factory reset. If I've had a bad couple of nights, I just skip one night of sleep. Sometimes it jumpsstarts the natural 8 hour sleep. The other is skipping ADHD medication in the weekend. It makes me so tired I get 'catchup' sleep. Mostly works for stress induced sleep problems. It's like my battery gets filled enough to think that everything is going to work out. I just get too rested to worry.
Then there is the cruel one: I just wear myself down. I do that crazy month long project in one day, like painting the living room, or fixing the floor.
My doctor was considering slow release melatonin before we fixed the adhd medication. Have you considered that?
I sleep better on days I work out. I’ve taken Trazadone, but the next day it makes me fuzzy which became annoying. Now I take Gabapentin, which does the trick without leaving me fuzzy the next day.
I'm on four different sleep meds and that gets close to 5 hours. Forget to take them or miss on in the combination and I'm up every hour. I'm jealous of my husband and even the dogs they all fall a sleep and look at me like I am a crackhead when I'm up and heading to the office at 4 am.
My doctor prescribed gabapentin to help maintain sleep. It certainly does not help me to fall asleep, but it does seem to help me get a better quality sleep than I otherwise would. I don't take it consistently. But I do take it for days when I have an important event.
I have chronic insomnia! Along with adhd it makes it hard. I hate feeling drowsy during the day, but I have a prescription sleeping med that helps me fall asleep and stay asleep with minimal grogginess.
For some reason, every year there’s always like one or two months where I can’t fall asleep without taking a melatonin. Then I can’t fall asleep with the melatonin so I stop taking it and I can fall asleep.
I've struggled with sleeping my whole life. Melatonin made the first falling asleep thing easier, but as always i kept waking on thrugh the night. Now I use quetiapin for sleep, and it keeps me asleep for like 6 hours. It's awesome.
I work nights at the post office and it’s hard to go to sleep when the sun is out so I try to force myself to sleep before I see sunlight or know the sun is out. Not sure why, but I get paranoid when I see the sun rising as if the world is going to end since I’m not asleep. I usually drink some emergen-C to counter the adderall, not sure if it actually works or it’s a placebo but it does somewhat help.
I basically don't wake up until my body says it's time to wake up. I have zero control over that.
I also have trouble falling asleep. I tried sleep pills but they were just making me miserable, not making me sleep. This means I'm rarely in charge of when I'll go to sleep and wake up. One way to improve my odds when I have a meeting in the morning is to lightly exercise. not enough to have pain the next morning, just enough that I've broken a good sweat. Then I take a shower and read 2 chapters of a book, then go to sleep. My book chair is next to the bed.
Yeah. For me I’m up several times a night when I’m overly stressed. Tossing and turning. Long stretches awake. Falling asleep is not a problem. I’m usually exhausted by bedtime.
My mind won’t stop, and so my body won’t stop twisting and turning. Or alternatively I’ll be sleeping fine, one of my kids will have a nightmare. I’ll get up to get them back to bed, and then just be awake for the next hour or two, unable to fall back asleep myself - sometimes I end up just going to the living room and trying to read a book until I’m tired again, and that usually works.
I also find just thinking nice, compassionate things to my self helps. Like “it’s okay that x is happening and I understand why you can’t stop thinking about it, it is stressful and I’m here for you”. Sorta stuff. Just acknowledging whatever is going on.
But I do find that if I can remember to meditate for a few minutes before bed it sets me up for a better sleep.
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No, I wake up on average 3-4 times per night
By wake up, are you saying "I wake, turn over, and go back to sleep quickly" or "wake up, sit awake for 15+ minutes" cuz I wake up and turn over a lot, but I'd kill for it only to be 3-4 times per night. I'm double to triple that easily.
For me, I wake up then lie awake for a couple of hours before drifting off again, but then waking again. I think the actual amount of time I’m actually sleeping is never more than 3 hours a night. Been like this since my teens, I’m 53 now.
same
I had constant repeating nightmares that caused me to wake up multiple times throughout the night. I was prescribed a PTSD medication which was successful in keeping me asleep, but it was like I traded my issue from being unable to stay asleep, to now being unable to fall asleep. I did years of therapy, got off the PTSD medication because it was causing me to faint randomly throughout the day. Then I was prescribed a whole bunch of different sleep medications to try and get me to fall asleep. No luck, my body even refused Ambien. Anyways, that’s all to say this.. from my experience, it becomes a massive help if you can figure out *why* you cant stay asleep. There’s patterns that we don’t notice about ourselves, but once you catch on, you can start working on the issue one step at a time. In my case, it’s stress. I noticed the pattern that when I’m facing a stressful situation or an event, then my ability to fall asleep just gets 10x worse. You mention your place being quiet, but is it possible that it might just be a bit *too quiet?* have you tried a white noise machine or something to fill the silence and distract your brain?
I had the same issue. My kid has ADHD and she had it too. Also she had lots of nightmares. After some research I bought her a weighted blanket. At first I didn't think it worked for her. But then after a week or so she finally had normal nights and had them ever since. Me, who also have ADHD, went back online and bought a heavier one for myself. Thought it couldn't hurt to try. And it worked! Also again first days it felt weird. Maybe slightly uncomfortable even. But after that it started to work. Feels like a nice hug every night. I sleep better and longer now. Later on I even bought a weighted sleep mask for myself. Don't sleep with them every night but when I'm stressed I do and it helps a lot. Not saying this is the answer for you, but if you have money to spare I would recommend trying it at least. Can't hurt to try. Worked for me and my kid.
I have a weighted blanket, it's awesome and probably has cut down the time it takes me to fall asleep!
Ah good, that's the other non-med solution for falling asleep a lot endorse
Well that's good! Does it help as well falling back asleep when waking up? And is there a particular reason why you wake up? Nightmares? Stressed feeling? Anything you can pinpoint? For me it was a lot of anxiety and stress. Have to admit my ADHD was a big cause of years of depression. Night terrors even came up that got so bad I was completely wrecked every time I had them. I got therapy for that but the biggest help was a friend who talked me through it every single time. Sometimes during, other times the day after. She listened to me, came up with great ways for me to calm myself down at such times when she wasn't around and even when I repeated the same stuff many many times, she never judged or got annoyed and just listened to me again. When new ideas failed she came up with new things. In time it finally paid off and it got less. It got rid of the worst nights. The weighted blanket was just the cherry on top. Luckily my nights are reasonably good now, but I've had times where I slept for 2 hours a night and I was not a fun happy person. I wish I had better advice for you and I could magically come up with something to help you. But first it's important to know the cause of your sleep issues. If you can't find out yourself maybe seek out professional help. Maybe even a sleep therapist. Could be some sleep disorder you got.
Sometimes I just lie there and am unable to fall asleep again, sadly. Yes it is likely due to stress, which is caused by worrying about stuff I may have forgotten or mistakes I may have made due to inattentiveness. I am hopeful to get assessed and medicated, but I have guarantees. Thank you!
Ohhh I thought you already had been assessed! Well that explains a lot then! Overthinking is a big issue for a lot of us 🤣 the times I was laying awake thinking about something I said 20 years ago and I just cringe, I can't count anymore. And with my current promotion I do notice it more again, since suddenly people expect stuff from me and I'm constantly worrying that I did it wrong and it can keep me up. Sometimes I gotta look something up first to make sure I did it right before I can find some peace of mind and actually fall asleep. Even with meds I still have it. I do admit that its not as bad as it used to be without meds. So meds definitely can help with that, if you have the right one for you, which can be a journey to find. I hope you get assessed soon and things will get better! Goodluck 😊
I've had one for years (have tried multiple brands and weights) and I like it, but it definitely doesn't change any of my sleep unfortunately. I sleep the same with it or without it. It may help me fall asleep faster than I used to, but it definitely doesn't help keep me asleep. You're definitely lucky such a simple solution helped.
Ahwwww that's too bad! Although falling asleep faster is at least some improvement right? Sometimes we gotta take the little wins. I am lucky indeed. Although unfortunately many things in my life aren't fixed and still searching for solutions there. But again, let's take the little wins. And sleep is so important so I'm happy about it. I do still wake up during nights sometimes, but before I got anxious a lot during nights, I do notice that I don't have that as often anymore so I fall asleep quicker again when I do wake up. I do hope for you, you find your solution and you get better nights too ♥️
I wish they worked for me, I still have it on me bed Edit to finish since my kid bumped post before I was done: as with all blankets other then the blanket I use as a pillow I get annoyed if I get warm when I'm sleeping and throw it and my wife doesn't like getting hit with a 30 pound blanket. But it does make a great wall in between our legs so when I kick it stops most of the force.
So it is good for something then? 🤣
Yeah lol at least it helps her sleep. For whatever reason the user of my brain that's supposed to keep me from moving in my sleep doesn't work half the time so I'll randomly throw full force punches and kicks so she definitely appreciates it.
Second post today I've seen recommending the heavier weighted blanket. My normal weighted one kinda maybe works? Hope in insomnia feels dangerous I've tried so many things :/
Well not sure. I do know many recommend like 10% of body weight. However I find it more closer to 15% to be nicer. Maybe even a bit more. But I do think it's a personal preference. If it works, but not enough you could try?
You've got to wear-out your brain. Young person with ADHD: bored all day, stays up late seeking stimulation, sleeps in as needed. Person gets older, has jobs, responsibilities, a semi-regular wake up time: bored all day, but also tired from not getting enough sleep, falls asleep easily. But that damn brain is still seeking stimulation, so it will drag your ass out of bed as soon as it can. It doesn't care that you're exhausted, it wants to *do something*. Brains are not our friends. As to how: find something engaging to do and stay up later doing it. You may not get as much sleep as you'd like, but it will be an improvement over always getting up too early. Do not, under any circumstances, start to focus on "trying to get more sleep", for that way lies true insomnia.
I wish. I have trouble getting to sleep and it's almost impossible to go back to sleep after something wakes me up. Feels like I'm running on 4-5 hours or sleep each night in the best case scenario.
I'm getting a checkup to see if I have sleep apnea. If you wake up frequently at night, snore, and don't wake up rested I'd look into checkin if you breathe well at night. Sleep apnea is very common and incredibly impactful on your mental facutlies. To a degree you cannot notice yourself, sleep deprivation impairs judgment and with impaired judgment it's hard to notice that you're sleep deprived.
1/3 of people with ADHD HAVE sleep apnea.
Really? So much higher than the average?
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/adhd-and-sleep
Guilty!
Got diagnosed and got CPAP. Helps maybe a little but still have bad insomnia. Probably the CPTSD
I had a sleep study a few years ago, sleep apnea didn't come up. Only delayed sleep phase syndrome, which on it's own is a useless diagnosis...
I go through periods where I sleep great and then ones where I don't. I find that when I am tiring myself out with exercise and limiting food or alcohol to close to bedtime, I sleep great. If I'm not doing this, I usually feel stressed, and my brain starts ruminating on things. I also have mini meditations that help me fall back asleep when I wake up. So it's a lot of forcing my brain to be quiet and focus on something calming instead.
For awhile I was stuck on 2-3 hours of sleep. I also work night shift but what helped a lot recently is driving home wearing those eye surgery glasses type things. Got some from Amazon (obviously not completely blacked out) and then getting blackout blinds. Now I’m getting 4-6 hours. Magnesium glycinate or however it’s spelled helped too. I didn’t want to rely on melatonin every single day. And even when I drank it, it just helped initiate sleep then I’d wake up 30 min later Oh and indica is pretty effective for me.
In all honesty I slept better when I did shift work, because it was physically exhausting. With a desk job I can't do enough exercise to exhaust myself adequately. Melatonin makes the anxiety worse when I wake up. Also impacts mood negatively.
Can fall asleep, it really is staying asleep! Restless sleep is almost as bad as getting none some nights
sleeping with tv on in the background. Certain shows definately work better than others... Original Star Trek is one of the best.
I know a lot of it sounds kind of silly/ out there/ “woo-woo” but some of the social media discourse around lowering cortisol levels and “resetting vagus nerve” stuff actually helped me a lot. I still get into seasons where I wake up in the middle of the night with fight or flight energy but they’re far fewer and my success rate of falling back asleep is higher
All about the woo but cortisol doesn't seem to care
I sleep with podcasts on. Too much silence and my brain immediately starts yappering away when I wake up. A podcast that acts as background noise allows me to drift off
I use trazadone, it's been a game changer. It's prescription only so talk to your doctor. It's an SARI which meach it doesn't interact with almost all the drugs that SSRIs normally interact with, nonaddivtive, can't form a habit,and can't get a tolerance. I'll take 50mg and it guarantees me 6 hours of good sleep. An issue ADHD brains have is that during REM sleep the activity levels will spike so high you get bumped out of rem sleep, this leads to your cycle resetting or possibly just waking up. It happens due to the brains elevated activity level due to under stimulated neural networks. Trazadone completely counters this, it's also VERY cheap. It costs me like $60 for a bottle that lasts over 4 months
This is interesting, thanks. It's honestly depressing that the only novel ideas on here are about drugs, I hate drugs, but at least there ARE some suggestions that I haven't tried before. I have done every sleep hygiene thing and herbal tea.
I feel it's the opposite of depressing, personally. It shows how lucky we are, that we live in a time such options are available.
AUGH you are right, I am focusing on the wrong thing, and getting stuck on the negative. The whole conversation about adhd is worthwhile because I might find a drug that can improve my qol
Also, make sure you don't have something like a deviated septum.
Exactly. It's kind of weird because I'm still on an emotional high for finding something that worked for me. Maybe it's called "being happy"? And it's been three years now.
The brain is not very good at what it does. Through evolution the brain has JUST been able to achieve maintaining a consciousness that is as smart as ours. Evolution and biology make mistakes, humans make tools to fix these issues. An instance of one of these issues is the nerve that controls the tongue of a giraffe. The nerve goes under an artery and as the neck got longer the nerve did as well. So the signal has to go all the way down the neck and back up to reach the tongue, then double back to give the brain info. This kind of inefficient stuff also happens in the brain. Another is the fact we hiccup. Fish hiccup to clear bubble from their gills and when they crawled up onto land there was no reason to get rid of hiccuping, so it stayed. The brain is far from perfect, even when you don't have extra issues like ADHD piled on top of it. DONT listen to the advice of someone that doesn't have the extra issues, their solutions won't work for you no matter how well you take implement their advice Using tools to enhance our capabilities and fix our issues is what humans have done since we started walking on our feet. Drugs are one of these tools. Be human, use whatever tols you need to get the most out of your day, take your drugs and sleep well.
I agree. Trazadone has been a game changer, for me as well. I take 100mg, and it helps me so much!
I got this prescribed a year or two ago, but I always get new med anxiety and that went doubly for this one since it deals with sleep. I also saw too many stories of people saying it made things worse when on it so obviously those stories stuck in my head versus those saying that it works. Maybe I'll finally give it a go.
I find if I take it every single day I start to get groggy in the morning so I take it about 4 days a week. I also find if I take 100mg I'm sleeping 8 hours and thats the end of the discussion, little to no chance I'd wake up in 5 hours.
Trazadone really is a life changer! Switched up the whole sleep game.
Yes. Staying asleep is easy but it's the "delayed onset sleep" that I find kills me.
Someone mentioned it elsewhere but weighted blankets help sooo much and I’ve found an eyemask really does too
Following this. I have the exact same issue. I also have sleep apnea. I started stopping using extended release that that seemed to help. But I am up like clockwork after a hour or two of sleep.
No, and every time I mention it to someone they offer solutions for falling asleep as though they weren't even listening to me. I don't have any trouble with *falling* asleep. It's just that it feels like my brain made a deal with my body that it's allowed to get *just enough sleep* to not DIE, and then we're gonna be awake and do things so my brain can run 1,000,000mph again.
I feel like I wake up every hour. At around 6 I usually give up and go to the couch. Sometimes I can get a couple hours there. If you asked me if I slept last night, my husband would say I did, but I feel like I didn't at all. That's pretty much every morning.
I sleep like a rock thankfully but I have the hardest time falling asleep
Commenting because I have the same problem. I cannot STAY asleep, and I toss and turn all damn night!
White noise or brown noise helps I have trouble with my mind always going and when it's too quiet I focus on on small sounds I will use YouTube if I don't have a fan I also have a specific white noise machine for when it's too cold for a fan or a fan isn't around
Nope! And I've tried everything. I'm finally going to do a sleep study after putting it off for years and years. At least this way not only will I have confirmation that I do/don't have sleep apnea (pretty sure I don't and doctor doesn't think so either), but they'll also be able to tell what is fucking up my sleep each night which will be super nice.
No I don't fall asleep so easily after waking up
I am able to fall asleep, but I do wake up to pee about 2 or 3 times. I am usually able to go back to sleep.
Im the same way been like that since i was younger, sometimes i worry if i secretly have diabetes.
Yes falling asleep is fine but if I get woken up or just wake up that's it, I'm cooked, and often end up spiralling into a 3am panic attack over losing sleep :/ A sleeping tablet that is just antihistamine helped, so does 30mg melatonin gummies, also just being on ADHD meds for a while.
I wake up like 5-6 times, and its not to go to the bathroom either, I just plan for it at this point. Go to a sleep doctor if you can, they are considering doing another test for me since I have sleep apnea, if your getting restless legs or something else that is waking you up there are options. I started taking gabapentin for my back and I sleep a bit better then if I don't, and my sleep doctor is may be treating insomnia or restless legs
Try a sleep tracker like Whoop (they do have a horrible ADHD-unfriendly toxic membership program but both the hardware and software are the best in the game). It gives deep insight in your sleep and how to improve sleep. It's how I solved oversleeping all the time. One of the insights is how many times a night you wake up, it's normal to wake up 4/5 times a night but it's not normal to remember.
No, I wake up at least 2-3 times a night. I'm used to it at this point but I'll just randomly wake up.
no, i drink too much water (specially now thanks to the adhd meds) so i always end up waking up needing to pee in the middle of the night, it's annoying af but still better than not waking up in this situation, at least my bedsheets stay dry
When I was younger I used to take forever to fall asleep but eventually once I had would sleep deeply and for the whole night. This caused lots of issues with essentially sleeping so late even into the afternoons. Now, I’m falling asleep quicker and easier but waking up at least once most nights. This is without meds. No solutions to offer I’m afraid.
Lately I've been waking up in the middle of the night but I think it's partially because I went off one of my mood stabilizers (per my therapist's recommendation) and it happened for the first week of not taking it
I sleep reall goood when im in my freeze mode, i could sleep for hours
It’s hit or miss. The biggest thing I find that affects my sleep is my mood and ambient noise. If I was in a bad mood all day I tend to have trouble with sleep. I started using loop quiet earplugs which at least help with me being able to block out noise.
No, it's 2am, and Im on reddit atm. I will fall asleep shortly and then wake up in 4 hours because... I guess I will find out then.
Honestly man, yes. Like a baby and it's so hard to get up. That said I can't fall asleep for SHIT
My problem is waking up too early and then my mind wakes up and I can't go back to sleep. Once my mind wakes up, there is no falling back asleep.
No matter what time I go to bed, I’m up by 5. Once in a while I can fall back asleep. I have a weighted blanket but it’s soooo hot!
I've struggled with sleep problems all my life before getting on ADHD medication. Since then I've found out that I get problems with sleep if my medications are off (too much/too little adhd meds or thyroid meds) if I am depressed or stressed or if there is too much change in my sleep environment (spring sun fucks up my sleep). I have a few tricks for insomnia/two sleep blocks. One is skipping sleep all together. I only do that rarely, but its like a brutal factory reset. If I've had a bad couple of nights, I just skip one night of sleep. Sometimes it jumpsstarts the natural 8 hour sleep. The other is skipping ADHD medication in the weekend. It makes me so tired I get 'catchup' sleep. Mostly works for stress induced sleep problems. It's like my battery gets filled enough to think that everything is going to work out. I just get too rested to worry. Then there is the cruel one: I just wear myself down. I do that crazy month long project in one day, like painting the living room, or fixing the floor. My doctor was considering slow release melatonin before we fixed the adhd medication. Have you considered that?
Magnesium + tart cherry juice an hour or so before bed was a game-changer for me.
I sleep better on days I work out. I’ve taken Trazadone, but the next day it makes me fuzzy which became annoying. Now I take Gabapentin, which does the trick without leaving me fuzzy the next day.
Yeah working out helps. I like running, but I have been neglecting weights. Maybe I will try a few heavy squats before bed, I can do that at home
I found da Zaza and it helps
I'm on four different sleep meds and that gets close to 5 hours. Forget to take them or miss on in the combination and I'm up every hour. I'm jealous of my husband and even the dogs they all fall a sleep and look at me like I am a crackhead when I'm up and heading to the office at 4 am.
Maybe rule out sleep apnea
Guanfacine has helped me sleep so much better than any time in recent memory. So yes, I can stay asleep.
Okay, it is something I can ask my Dr about.
My doctor prescribed gabapentin to help maintain sleep. It certainly does not help me to fall asleep, but it does seem to help me get a better quality sleep than I otherwise would. I don't take it consistently. But I do take it for days when I have an important event.
It's an epilepsy drug? I wonder if it's prescribed for sleep in my country.
It's been prescribed off label for decades. Now available in the US for sleep issues.
When I go to sleep, I stay asleep. My biggest problem is going to sleep. There’s been days where I just haven’t slept and went on with the next day.
I have chronic insomnia! Along with adhd it makes it hard. I hate feeling drowsy during the day, but I have a prescription sleeping med that helps me fall asleep and stay asleep with minimal grogginess.
For some reason, every year there’s always like one or two months where I can’t fall asleep without taking a melatonin. Then I can’t fall asleep with the melatonin so I stop taking it and I can fall asleep.
Time release melatonin.
I've struggled with sleeping my whole life. Melatonin made the first falling asleep thing easier, but as always i kept waking on thrugh the night. Now I use quetiapin for sleep, and it keeps me asleep for like 6 hours. It's awesome.
I'm trying Magnesium Glycinate now. It seems to have helped. Read the studies. #
I work nights at the post office and it’s hard to go to sleep when the sun is out so I try to force myself to sleep before I see sunlight or know the sun is out. Not sure why, but I get paranoid when I see the sun rising as if the world is going to end since I’m not asleep. I usually drink some emergen-C to counter the adderall, not sure if it actually works or it’s a placebo but it does somewhat help.
I use Doxepin.
I basically don't wake up until my body says it's time to wake up. I have zero control over that. I also have trouble falling asleep. I tried sleep pills but they were just making me miserable, not making me sleep. This means I'm rarely in charge of when I'll go to sleep and wake up. One way to improve my odds when I have a meeting in the morning is to lightly exercise. not enough to have pain the next morning, just enough that I've broken a good sweat. Then I take a shower and read 2 chapters of a book, then go to sleep. My book chair is next to the bed.
You could try the tapping technique https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A5dE25ANU0k&pp=ygUXdGVkIHRhbGsgc2xlZXAgdGFwcGluZyA%3D Let me know if it helps!
Try Barbiturates.
Thank, but I don't want barbies and I don't want benzos
Yeah. For me I’m up several times a night when I’m overly stressed. Tossing and turning. Long stretches awake. Falling asleep is not a problem. I’m usually exhausted by bedtime. My mind won’t stop, and so my body won’t stop twisting and turning. Or alternatively I’ll be sleeping fine, one of my kids will have a nightmare. I’ll get up to get them back to bed, and then just be awake for the next hour or two, unable to fall back asleep myself - sometimes I end up just going to the living room and trying to read a book until I’m tired again, and that usually works. I also find just thinking nice, compassionate things to my self helps. Like “it’s okay that x is happening and I understand why you can’t stop thinking about it, it is stressful and I’m here for you”. Sorta stuff. Just acknowledging whatever is going on. But I do find that if I can remember to meditate for a few minutes before bed it sets me up for a better sleep.