So, sleep anyone? - ADD / ADHD Message Board

janewhite1 · 05-30-2009, 08:17 PM

We've got some GREAT threads going right now. So I thought I'd add one about sleep.

I've had trouble falling asleep since early childhood. (Since birth, according to my mother.) It almost always takes me the better part of an hour to fall asleep. When I'm actually suffering from stress-related insomnia... Let's not go there.

I remember once when I was about four years old I fell asleep as soon as I lay down and slept all night, and woke up utterly bewildered as to where the night had gone. Even at that age it was normal for me to take half an hour to an hour to fall asleep, and then to wake up too early.

In fact, I learned as a teenager that many people actually can fall asleep in less than 10 minutes under the right circumstances. This was a total surprise to me.

In fact, the number one reason I take my Adderall only in emergencies is that if I take it at 9am, I'll be up until 4am.

I know I'm not alone in this. Does anyone have solutions?

Thunor · 05-30-2009, 11:06 PM

I wish I could help; falling asleep has never been my problem. There are times that I take an hour or so to fall asleep, but they are far from the norm. As a rule, I can turn it off in minutes, and that's when I'm sleeping in bed . . . put me in the passenger seat of a car or a truck and it's like flipping a switch, an unfortunate side effect of years on the road without enough sleep, you slept when it wasn't your turn to drive.

Now staying asleep, that's another matter. Not a night goes by that I don't wake up at least two to three times, and have done so as long as I can remember. I remember kids making fun of me at summer camp because I woke the whole cabin every night when I woke up and stumbled to the bathroom in the pitch dark.

Alas, I've yet to find a solution. I do sleep better with regular exercise, but it doesn't eliminate my nightly waking entirely. OTC sleep aids do little other than make me groggy in the morning, same with Melatonin. Therefore, I'll be watching this thread with interest, because I'd love to learn how people manage to sleep through the night.

addprogrammer · 05-31-2009, 03:29 AM

Sleep, wa dat?

Visa-versa on the Adderall, though. It can help me sleep but not consistently. So far, no cigar, on nailing the variables. Perhaps half the time my brain keeps doing whatever it was doing during the day especially if it was doing it all day. I am in some level of sleep because the time I percieve I was asleep is much less than elapsed time. Sucky sleep is just as sucky as no sleep.

Sedation WAS (six days on the wagon now) partially behind my super chocolate ice cream addiction. Essentially it's a stimulant mixed in with a few thousand grams of fat and sugar. Sugar alone gives me ebbe-gebbies.

I don't know what the heck I'm talking about other than I don't sleep well most of the time and it reeks havoc with my ADHD.

What's the solution?

Bob

addprogrammer · 05-31-2009, 04:06 AM

Maybe I should apply my auto repairs skills.

I have a inprocess job that I must hand off to an expert tomorrow. I've been using the diagnostic process called "throwing parts at it." One of them there parts has got to be the problem. Sooner or later, said car will be fixed. Off to an expert tomorrow. My arm hurts from part throwing.

I missed a free near-by sleep study last year. You know, they wire you up, expect you to sleep wired (no pun intended), and measure brain waves. Then tell you the part to replace. You need a new hypothalamus. Check at NAPA for a remanufactured. Just be sure to take the your old one with you so you don't get nailed with a core charge.

Anyone ever do a sleep disorder thing?

Bob

addprogrammer · 06-01-2009, 07:28 AM

Jane,

If this thread goes dead, it's because no one has a clue how to manage this perhaps most pervasive ADHD side-kick. I, for one, have not found a practical solution. I used lumber jacking for a while. The calorie requirements for a full time lumber jack, not using mechanization other than a chain saw, is about 8,000 calories per day. I slept better than a rock. It is not practical or even possible for me to exercise like that more than once a month. Nets me one good night's sleep per month.

I've tried eating myself to sleep; some efficacy with life threatening weight gain. No good.

Boozing myself to sleep. Produces two or three hours of poor quality sleep than wide awake with a headache and the worse case of ADD (less the H) imaginable. Positively no good.

Over-the-counter and presciption sleep aids: Either made the insomnia worse or had same effect as booze less the headache.

Melatonin: Insufficient efficacy. Produces serotonin overload if mixed with Celexa. I experience the overload as a wicked case of RLS. Needless to say, not conducive to sleep. My brain wants to sleep but leg anguish overrides.

Celexa has helped some but not enough. Exceptional effective as an AD for me. I had shrink appt. last week. Talked about kicking Celex. Shrink told me I'm too much of a problem without it. Hmn, who's he worried about?

I have some variables plugged but will have to wait to post details. Here's the outline.

The four types of ADHD I experience and how insufficient sleep affects them:

Switching channel ADHD
Brain dead ADHD
Overfocused ADHD
Stimulant crash ADHD