Hi all! I was formally diagnosed with ADHD in my mid 20’s. Currently taking generic Vyvanse and Guanfacine. Getting on meds was a huge quality of life improvement. One thing that I still struggle with is chronic insomnia, which is a common commorbidity with – or maybe symptom of – ADHD. The insomnia started around the time I hit puberty and I can count on one hand the number of great nights sleeps I’ve had since then.
I’ve tried a lot of environmental changes like:
- Having a rigid bedtime schedule.
- Wearing blue light filter glasses for 3 hours before bed.
- Taking melatonin supplements.
- Minimizing screentime.
- Using a weighted blanket.
Those all seem to help somewhat but not to a huge degree. I still feel sleep deprived most of the time.
Apparently I also occasionally have jerking movements while asleep somewhat consistent with “Periodic Limb Movements of Sleep (PLMS)”.
Has anyone else had a similar experience and found any effective treatments?
I had a lot of problems to sleep as well. What woks for me is doing excercise and a fan/air mover to make white noise.
Right there with you. I’ve seen the school photos my parents keep: at 13 it’s a normal photo, at 14 I have deep grey shadows under my eyes. I haven’t been able to sleep “normallly” since then. I was diagnosed a couple years ago at 35; getting on stimulants improved my waking life immeasurably, but the messed up sleep remained. One of the Drs recommended melatonin; this is the only thing that has ever really helped. It kinda short circuits my brain’s intention to stay awake until 4am looking for who knows what, and when I fall asleep I really sleep. Still only manage a few hours of sleep when I’m getting up at normal o’clock for work, but at least I’m getting up.
I don’t have real advice, this is mainly for solidarity. I’m tired too.
Similar experience across the board and always chronically tired, but no effective treatment found yet. It’s rough
Some forms of magnesium can help with sleep. Magnesium threonate makes me tired but doesn’t have a rebound effect like melatonin where I jolt awake when it wears off. The only issue is its cost, though it’s worth it for me.
Don’t know how it interacts with ADHD or your meds. But phenibut is phenomenal if you want to sleep. But maybe not so good to take on the reg.
Same dude. I found getting physically tired helps me align my mental state with my body so I actually sleep. If I don’t get enough exercise my dreams get too intense and I only sleep a few in restful hours that night.
No idea if it will help you but it helped me. I jump rope while listening to music or a podcast. It’s easy to get lost in the rhythm until I’m tired enough.
The trick is staying hydrated without drinking so much you wake up needing to pee in the middle of the night.
Maybe look into a sleep study. I wear a CPAP after getting diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. I hate wearing it but the sleep I get is worth it.
My son’s meds messed up his sleep schedule, so he takes a prescription sleep aid to knock him out at a reasonable time so he’s rested when it’s time to get ready for school.
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I’ve got mild sleep apnea and most likely PLMS. My wife has restless leg syndrome. She also has a weighted blanket and uses melatonin. She listens to boring/calming youtube vids via an ear phone. She takes cold showers to numb her legs. She has to take naps during the day to function.
Both of us have ADHD. We also tried the things you did.
All I can offer are a few things I’ve started doing differently:
Using a sleep mask and wearing an ear plug (Loops is the brand) at night. Just one, as I sleep on my side. People with ADHD do suffer from sensory issues, so might not like sleeping with things on their face and in ears.
I found cutting off excess light and particularly random sounds (birds, traffic noise, voices etc) made getting to sleep a lot easier. Yes I periodically lose/drop my ear buds, but that’s a different issue.
I bought extra pillows to support my body.
Another thing I noticed only last week, after almost decades of lying in bed stretching my legs half asleep, trying to get rid of aches. I found that the uncomfortable feeling was coming from muscles in my thighs. Massaging, stretching has made a difference. Tension in shoulders, neck and jaw can go unnoticed for a long time.
It’s also very easy to lay in bed with loads of things on your mind. I created a set of stories/fantasies that I play out in my head. It helps me to down out unintrusive thoughts.
On a side note, I heard that an Ex-Top Gear presenter (also Adhd) imagine he’s driving down his favourite roads.
The fact is, a lot of people’s body clocks are different. If it wasn’t for societal working hours and adult responsibilities, I know both me and my wife would sleep till late morning, work into the night. Maybe even nap during the day.
Stimulants messed up my ability to stay asleep so my provider gave me Trazodone which worked but made me too drowsy during the day (they suggested melatonin but that makes me even drowsier than the Trazodone). They switched me to Baclofen which is a muscle relaxer that helps with staying asleep which is all I need since the stimulants actually made it easier for me to fall asleep. Between that, good sleep hygiene, and a CPAP I usually get pretty good sleep nowadays.
My friend who has fairly severe AuDHD self medicates a lot with recreational marijuana to get reliable sleep on work nights. Obviously that’s not always the best choice without a doctor’s advice and you may not be in a legal state/country.
I actually tried that which is how I learned that I’m allergic to cannabis. Go figure.
Damn! That sucks, what are the odds.
The best sleep I ever got was when my doc put me on Ritalin. Out cold 12-20 hours a day, and still sleepy when awake. It was awful.
Fascinating.
Had a family member with same experience - always thought it was him, never connected it to a stimulant.
The meds for many people reduce sleep quality. You should talk to your doctor. Drug, dosage, and timing can help. As others said, you should do a sleep study.
One thing you didn’t mention is exercise; it may help, but it’s not a panacea. It should be completed well before sleep, as intense exercise is stimulating.
Blue light filters are simply nowhere near as effective as simply dimming the lights and taking screens out of the equation for those hours is more effective. But again, this is far from a panacea.
I’m the same as you and I haven’t found anything that works perfectly either. In fact my sleep has only gotten worse with time. I really wish I could help you out. I also have a weighted blanket and all that. I tried podcasts too like the SleepWithMe podcast with mixed results. I’m pretty noise sensitive so while it can sometimes help me scramble my thoughts in bed and aid in falling asleep it can also often wake me back up, especially the sudden silence after an episode ends can ironically alert me.
I’ve been taking Alimemazine lately which is a strong antihistamine and it is the best medication I’ve found in terms of sleep aid that can be taken daily. Makes you tired as fuck the morning after though, really takes a few hours to shake off.
Zopiclone helps with falling asleep but you can’t take it more than maybe once a week. If you mostly struggle with falling asleep (as opposed to staying asleep) then it can be a good tool to reset every once in a while, or to ensure a good night’s sleep before an important event etc. Unfortunately for me I’ve started waking up multiple times at night the past few years so I’m not getting the same value out of it that I used to.
