Old problem, back again | ADHD Information
Months ago, I would sleep to forget about life, the job i hate & just my ADD problems in general. My S/O told me that i'm sleeping my life away & my answere was " it's my life, and if i want to sleep it away, thats my bussiness"! Well he made it impossible for me to sleep all day until i went to work by not leaving anything around that could make me sleepy. (he works days & i work nights). I was MAD! But than i started doing things i use to enjoy. so the sleeping all day ended. But now that i'm looking for day work & having no luck, the urge to sleep is coming back. Has enyone had that problem? HELP!I hated sleeping too much, cause it just made me feel bad all together, and then I would sleep some more,
On the weekends it is hard for me to be productive (no grand plans for cleaning house since dear husband sleeps in so late it is noon before he gets up). And then on the weekends I wake up like 8am putter around on the computer then get tired again to go back to bed until he wakes up later.
I just don't like our mixed up sleeping, don't like sleeping in at all on the weekends, cause then I am useless the rest of the day for getting anything done - next thing the whole weekend is gone.
In general this just personally drags me down and I know I can do better, my house cleaning definitely suffers... I would like for once to have a clean house, to finish unpacking and be able to invite friends over to play cards or something.
i used to sleep until noon and that was waking early back in my days of working nights...but i work days now..8-5..and i have a long morning commute. i must, during the wkdays, get up around 6 at the latest. its hell..but i've found after a couple years of doing this that i'm accustomed to doing it. now i cannot sleep later than 9 am on the wk/ends..which even if i wanted too, my three and half year old would be driving his matchbox cars on my forehead and playing in my bed..
i do however, latinaadd, use sleep as a refuge exactly as you do. even though one of my closest dearest friends has referred to me as his 'amphetimine' while he is my 'soma' it seems like i burn so brightly and then i crash like crazy. after work i used to regularly nap until my husband got enough of that..but it would practically bring me to tears how he didn't understand that i needed it..i'm just so exhausted it seems! all the time! wellbutrin and adderall have done nothing to change this and i actually suspect that i crash harder b/c of the adderall..yesterday i was even considering pulling over off the highway home and parking in a parking lot to TAKE A NAP..b/c my eyes were having a hard time staying open. other ppl fantasize about food money and sex.
i fantasize about SLEEP.
on the wkends if i'm feeling down or my husband and i get in an argument...or even after i've had sex. i'm out for at least an hour. i don't know if that is normal or not..he too says"you're sleeping your life away"
and i've said the same thing you have latina: so what? its my life and i LOVE sleeping.
lol
sumi
AddLatina,
You may just be depressed from not working. You don't feel productive. I notice that when I am unemployed, I become very depressed and I can't seem to get off of the sofa.
I actually like to stay up late and sleep late, though I never sleep until noon. I found a job that starts at 12 noon and my classes start at noon also. So if I don't wake up until 9, it's not a problem. My problem is that I am not geting 8 hours of sleep. I get to bed at around 2 AM. I am up at around 6. Then back to sleep at around 7 and back up at 8. Sometimes, I can catch a power nap after my fist class ends at 4.
My point is that maybe you could find a job that scheduels you to come in at times that are more conducive to your ADD propensities. I don't recall whether or not you're in school, but if not, try signing up for a class. College courses feed our drive to always have something to do and it's worthwhile. All of that time you're awake late at night will be filled with productive research and study. No since wasting all of that valuable time. This is an especially important thing to do while you are between jobs.
Addlatina,
Try getting out in the sun for a while just before you normally would get sleepy and take a nap. You could go for a walk or just sit outside and have your morning coffee. I find that the sun is refreshing and excercize energizes. You might even want to try jazzercize or something. I've also found that if I get on a schedule of 8 to 9 hrs straight sleep, beginning about the same time each night, that I can make myself stay up and get moving. Its when I have nothing to do or something I don't want to do that I want to go back to bed.
Now that I've said that, I have to admit I don't take my own advice! I have in the past and know it works, I just love being up late after every one else is asleep, then when morning comes, I really, really regret it!
Another thing to watch is diet. I know that when I start to get depressed I tend to eat high sugar, high starch foods (cookies, chips, donuts, bread, rolls, etc.). these things send my blood sugar levels on a rollar coaster ride. My head gets fuzzy and I cannot help but sleep. Plus they end up making me more depressed, so I exercise less and eat more.
Just a thought.
WOW! Thanks guys! Some of these things i never though of. Chiefb i do have a job, but it's nigt work (3-11)and my S/O works days. I'm trying to go back to school to brush up on my billing & coding, which i went to school for a few yrs ago. I actually graduated with honors, but i failed terribly when i had just billing jobs. I also wasn't on meds at that time either. Maybe time it will work. I need to find a day job to get me on a regular schedual.
Also today i tried the exercise thing. When my S/O went to work, i walked around our subddivision. that was at 7 am. i did feel more engeretic even though i felt loney at times. in the south, you gotta walk early before it gets way to hot! now the coffee thing i can't do. i would be so jittery, and then to take my meds....not good. I am gonna stick to exercising.
I do feel terrible when i sleep to much. Sumiah, my S/O thinks i'm the only one in the world who would say"it's my life i can sleep it away. I do sometimes fantasize about money. but i DO fantasize about sleep!
Thanks again for your stories and suggestions! Now i have to stick to it.
p.s - try not to spread yourself to thin, working full-time and going to school is very difficult. it almost like 3 jobs, your subconcious is working on something, you need to fight it to go to work, and you need to fight it to study in a structured environment. rats!, i'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
at
least this is how i see it. if you are really interested in what you
are studying it goes much easier, but that doesn't happen all the time
in a structured environment. good luck, we're all rooting for you!Hi Wile E! I really love the way you put things into prospcective. My S/O is pretty supportive, but he has NO idea just how complex our brains really are. If anything, he believes just we are the ones who think less. If he could ever get inside my brain, I think he would exit REAL FAST! He'd say " to much going on in there for me"! Then he would realize why we need more sleep. But since he can't, all i can do is make him read articals in mags & he did read Driven to distraction, thats when he realized we ADDers do have a real problem, not just something we "made up". But i think you have to have something to really understand it. So far i'm sticking to the advise you guys gave me. Since i posted this, i haven't slept in the afternoon. If aanything, i sleep in a little later in the morning, than i'm up for the day. However the temptation is still there!
As for school, your right, it probably would be to much. I'm gonna haveto work something out. It seems like such a wast to let the education i have gotten go to wast & i do love coding. as far as a 3 hr nap break goes....i don't think in this lifetime! though it would be nice!
Thanks again to everyone for helping me out. It's great having new friends that REALLY understand me in my corner
you guys, i'm having to think about the same thing.
school is starting this fall and i've been more stressed out about the idea of enough sleep than almost anything else. when i had my son and i had to go through the months of waking every 1 1/2 hours for days on end. i almost had a break down. it was like navy seals training. the sleep deprivation made me want to die. i was crying and on the verge all the time. it was horrible. ...so i am doing everything i can to get as much sleep as i need when i'm in school. i'm going to be ultra ultra organized about my time. i'm going to plan every minute of my week in my pda so that i ensure that i can get enough sleep/study time/family time. its going to be a huge ordeal and if i can manage it i will be very pleased with myself for having accomplished it.
the one thing that sucks too..i have to give up my therapy meetings.i just don't know how i can squeeze that in. that would mean: two nights at school per week..working 40 hrs a week plus my commute which really equals 65 hours a week and having to study, and make sure i see my son as much as a i can before he goes to be at 9 pm is going to be hard.
yikes!
so i couldn't spare another night not seeing my son. it would of been three nights in a row i wouldn't see him. and since i don't see him in the morning b/c i have to leave so early to go to work..i wouldn't see him for three days straight.
sumi
Sleep is a real temptation for me especially when I'm bored or feeling blue. But I heard about this one thing called "sleep signature". Basically, when you're feeling tired say, mid afternoon and you'd usually crash out for an hour or two, don't. Just lay down, take a note of the time and close your eyes. Within about 10-30 minutes you're body will naturally wake you up, this is when you'd usually open your eyes, look around and drop off back to sleep. The problem with going back to sleep is you'll feel more groggy and tired after wake up. So when you naturally wake up, get up and make a note of the time that you woke up. The time between when you dropped off and the time you woke up is apparantly called your "sleep signature". If when you're tired mid afternoon or evening you sleep for just this amount of time you'll feel re-energised because it's exactly the amount that you're body needs. Most people's sleep signature varies between 10-30 minutes but never changes so once you know it it can be real helpful. Another good way of getting the same energy back is hypnotherapy, it's amazing how refreshed you can feel after 20 minutes of relaxation.