Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.
Close Banner
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

Why Sleep Doesn't Come Easy To People With ADHD (& What To Do About It)

Author:
September 26, 2024
Writer
By Jessica McCabe
Writer
Jessica McCabe is the creator, writer, and star of the award-winning, pioneering YouTube channel How to ADHD
Woman asleep in sparse room with morning light
Image by Ivan Ozerov / Stocksy
September 26, 2024

There are all kinds of reasons people sacrifice sleep—grad school, caring for a baby, or meeting book deadlines. ADHDers, however, are more likely to regularly experience the following reasons for staying awake:

How ADHD keeps you awake

We're not tired yet

Those with ADHD tend to have a later chronotype—that is, the time we’re naturally inclined to sleep is later than usual. For those with these chronotypes, melatonin (the sleep hormone) is released later, delaying our bedtime. Dr. Stephen Becker, an expert in both ADHD and sleep who shared his insights with me, says this is especially problematic in adolescence when chronotypes are naturally later and more sleep is required.

We’re not done yet

Because we have difficulty focusing, homework, chores, and bedtime routines can take longer for us to finish. We might find ourselves staying up late to take care of things we forgot, cramming for tests at the last minute, or finishing projects the night before they’re due. Time management, motivation, and focus also pose significant challenges for those with ADHD—and our struggles in these areas often cut into our sleep.

We’re too stimulated (or not stimulated enough)

Stimulant medications and caffeine are commonly used to treat ADHD (or self-medicate, in the case of caffeine). They can also keep us awake. However, for some with ADHD, stimulants have the opposite effect. Many doctors report some patients have an easier time making the transition to bed when they’re medicated and find it more difficult when their meds have worn off. Understimulated brains might race with a million thoughts, pick a fight with their bedmate, or bounce out of bed for one more bedtime snack.

We experience revenge bedtime procrastination

Revenge bedtime procrastination is a phrase that describes the experience of staying awake to play video games, message friends, let our brains dive down Wikipedia rabbit holes. You know, the things we didn’t get to do while we were awake.

Bedtime? What’s a bedtime?

Research has found that inconsistent sleep schedules can make it harder to get enough sleep, and a lack of routine is associated with inconsistent sleep schedules. Since ADHD brains tend to have trouble sticking with routines, it isn’t surprising that we have trouble sleeping at the same time every night. But sometimes, our lack of routine might be due to our difficulties sleeping. After all, what’s the point of going to bed at a certain time when you know you’re just going to stare at the ceiling for three hours?

Going to bed is boring

Boredom is painful for ADHD brains, and sleep can be boring, especially if we need to transition from doing something fun to a tedious bedtime routine. When we finally make it to bed, we often deal with the distress that boredom causes by distracting ourselves with activities that don’t support a good night’s sleep. (What’s up, blue light?

How to sleep with ADHD

While there are effective treatments available for every single sleep disorder associated with ADHD, there are many practices that you can do for yourself or your loved ones right now.

1.

Prioritize (the right amount) of sleep

While there are times when we have trouble sleeping, there are other times when we skip sleep to have extra hours in our day to get stuff done. Prioritizing sleep means no longer seeing sleep as optional, or less important than whatever else needs to happen in our day. None of the other strategies will matter much if we throw sleep out the window the second something comes up.

You might be wondering, But isn’t that six a.m. yoga class / gym session worth waking up early for?

If you can do that and still get enough sleep, sure. But according to Dr. Patrick LaCount, “If you need to pick between exercise and getting enough sleep, sleep.” This is coming from someone who researches the positive impacts of exercise on ADHD.

However, prioritizing sleep doesn’t mean getting as much sleep as possible, or even getting eight hours. The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person and changes over our lifetime.

According to experts, you should aim to sleep long enough to fulfill your intrinsic sleep needs. In other words, we should be aiming for enough sleep so that we feel refreshed and alert, not dull and sleepy.

2.

Practice "good" sleep hygiene?

Practicing good sleep hygiene means following the personal practices and before-bed rituals that help us sleep better—and avoiding the ones that make us sleep worse.

But what is that stuff?

That’s tricky. While there’s enough research to inform general guidelines for good sleep hygiene, what works for each person varies. Plus, because much of the research on sleep hygiene has been done on the general population, there are still a lot of gaps in that knowledge when it comes to the population with ADHD.

Even when we know what good sleep hygiene is, we may struggle to follow it and follow it consistently. Having ADHD means laughing heartily at common sleep hygiene tips because they are so unrealistic for us. “Avoid electronics for two hours before bed?” Are they kidding?

Still, there are a few research-backed sleep hygiene strategies worth trying for most of us.

A Note on Electronics

There is conflicting research about electronics at bedtime. The standard advice says to limit screen time and keep devices out of the bedroom. However, there isn’t strong evidence that avoiding electronics in the hours before bedtime is necessary. (Thank the screen time gods!) If watching reality TV or wikiwalking on your tablet before bed makes you sleepy, by all means go for it. No matter what you choose to do, keep in mind that there is strong support in the scientific literature for leaving electronics out of the bedroom as a way to promote healthy sleep—and healthy relationships (wink)!
  • Time your stimulants. Many of us use stimulant medication, caffeine, and even nicotine to manage our ADHD. Some stimulants naturally last longer than others, and some last longer for certain individuals. For some, caffeine at bedtime can help them “focus” on getting to sleep; for others, any stimulants after noon can make it harder. Try tracking what time you take any stimulants and how you sleep that night. Use this information to figure out the best time for you to take them.
  • Avoid conflict right before bed. Since sleep happens more easily when you feel safe, give yourself (and your loved ones) enough time to return to your emotional baselines before going to bed. If there’s a nonurgent issue, address it well before bedtime or leave it for another day so you have a better chance of being able to sleep. Not only will everyone be less cognitively drained while you’re trying to discuss the issue, it also avoids a common ADHD bedtime trap of “I’m bored, and fighting is stimulating!”
  • Keep bedtime and wake times as consistent as possible. Sleep depends on two factors: 1.) your circadian rhythm, and 2.) your homeostatic regulation, the process that regulates your biological systems, including your need for sleep.* Sleep is most effective when your circadian rhythm and homeostatic regulation are working together. This is why your best bet for good sleep is to keep your bedtimes and wake times as consistent as you can. This way, your body has a chance to build up the need for sleep as your body clock starts nudging you toward bed. If you do need to adjust your bedtime, Dr. Becker recommends doing it incrementally, moving it no more than fifteen minutes at a time.
  • Associate your bed with sleep. The more time we spend in bed staring at the ceiling or completing a task such as answering emails, the more we associate our bed with wakefulness. This can weaken the brain’s cue to sleep when you settle into bed. Experts suggest that if you have been lying awake for twenty minutes, get out of bed, do something boring, and come back when you’re ready to sleep. If you do need to use your bed for other tasks, create a cue that only happens at bedtime to help you differentiate between work bed and sleep bed. For example, you might keep your pillows off the bed until it’s time to sleep.
3.

Motivate yourself to sleep

Knowing that we should sleep and that it’s important often isn’t enough to convince an ADHD brain to shut down for the night. We are attracted to things that are exciting, urgent, and new. Sleep is pretty much the opposite of all that. The societal and social pressures to skip it don’t help either.

Here are some strategies you might consider to make bedtime a better time:

  • Get your needs met during the day. We might assume prioritizing the full amount of sleep our brains need means giving up hobby time, alone time, or social time. But those activities are important, too. If we give ourselves guilt-free time for them during the day, we’ll be less likely to do them while we’re supposed to be sleeping—and more motivated to actually sleep.*
  • Create wind-down rituals you enjoy. Our brains and bodies need time to wind down before bed. The key for those with ADHD is to choose wind-down rituals that are interesting enough for you to want to do them, but not so engaging that you can’t stop doing them. Think: putting together puzzles, reading, trading massages, or watching reruns of old TV shows.
  • Consider your sensory needs. A lot of ADHDers are sensitive to rough blankets, weird tasting toothpaste, the fit of their clothes, or tags on their PJs. On the flip side, we can be drawn to “sensory good” experiences. To make bedtime more appealing, it can be helpful to seek out soft cozy blankets, silk pillowcases, weighted comforters, essential oil diffusers, different flavors of toothpaste, or various states of undress. If your body feels good, it will be easier to relax, mentally and physically.

Excerpted from HOW TO ADHD copyright © 2024 by Jessica McCabe. Used by permission of Rodale Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. 

Watch Next

Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes

Watch Next

Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes

What Is Meditation?

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Light Watkins

Box Breathing

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar

What Breathwork Can Address

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar

The 8 Limbs of Yoga - What is Asana?

Yoga | Caley Alyssa

Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips

Yoga | Caley Alyssa

How Plants Can Optimize Athletic Performance

Nutrition | Rich Roll

What to Eat Before a Workout

Nutrition | Rich Roll

How Ayurveda Helps Us Navigate Modern Life

Nutrition | Sahara Rose

Messages About Love & Relationships

Love & Relationships | Esther Perel

Love Languages

Love & Relationships | Esther Perel

Related Videos (10)

What Is Meditation?

Box Breathing

What Breathwork Can Address

The 8 Limbs of Yoga - What is Asana?

Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips

How Plants Can Optimize Athletic Performance

What to Eat Before a Workout

How Ayurveda Helps Us Navigate Modern Life

Messages About Love & Relationships

Love Languages

Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

More On This Topic

more Health
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.