How do I get some sleep? | ADHD Information

[QUOTE=omalley]

I've suffered from insomnia for years (I'm 35) and only now that I've been diagnosed with ADD (could've saved me 35 years of pain), I'm wondering if my sleep problems are related to the ADD. Does anyone have any good suggestions? Mostly it is a problem falling asleep and I'm usually lying there for a good hour before I fall asleep. At times, however, I find myself waking up at 4am to go to the bathroom and not being able to fall asleep again until 6am and then the alarm goes off at 6:45am.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

[/QUOTE]

you just described me to a T...i hve adhd, sever anxiety disorder and agoraphobia.

everything you mentioned down to taking an hour or so to get back to sleep whether it is when u go to bed or get up to pee is me....i find that drinking coffee or mt dew right b4 bed actually makes me tired. my sons psych dr said that it either does the adverse reaction to those with adhd or it doesnt. wouldnt hurt to give it a try or have your dr prescribe ambien to you...it works on me for about a month at a time....

right now i take clonazapam for my panic attacks and it helps with sleep so i dont need ambien.

hope this helps......best of luck as lack of sleep brings out the worst in adhd symptoms.

You need to do whatever it takes to re-establish your natural circadian rhythem. Use sleep meds if neccessary. Once your sleep patterns become normalized, taper off the drugs, and replace them with 5g trytophan (on an empty stomach) if you can find it, otherwise take 10g of taurine. It will relax you, and youll be less anxious about your sleep disorder.

I would try the AA route first. If that doesnt help, see a MD.

I'm 38 with severe inattentive ADHD - and I know where you're coming from!

Sleep problems can often come from ADHD - I used to be a terrible insomniac in my early teens through my twenties. As I've gotten older I find sleep is somewhat easier - but I do have weeks where it's tough still.

I find that my work keeps me so stimulated and I labour so hard that by the end of the day I'm beat and sleep soundly most of the time. I am single now - which helps because when you have people around it's hard not to be tempted to stay up and be with them. It was with me anyway.

I find that keeping away from interesting tasks and TV shows at least an hour before bed helps a lot. I keep the weather network or something boring on at night - I still need the "white noise" to help sleep. It does help me if something I don't focus on is on in the background.

Avoid stimulants (coffee, pop or your meds) a couple hours before bed too. I find if I have my coffee too close to bed that I just can't close my eyes.

Hope this helps - have you looked at the resources on websites like www.oneaddplace.com? They have some links to advice too. Maybe warm milk too - I'm intolerant to dairy so I can't but I hear it works for a lot.

- Glen

Any suggestions would be welcome!

After being diagnosed, and taking meds (I've tried everything--Concerta, ritalin, provigil, wellbutrin, adderal etc) I found I slept much better on ALL of these meds. Unfortunatly, they didn't help WAKE me up during the day so I quit taking them and now am on an antidepressent, but for me a STIMULANT helped me SLEEP!where yu been GlenW, Melatonin's been legal for over a year, Hey, when was melatonin not legal? Just in Canada?here you go

With the introduction of the Natural Health Products Regulations on January 1, 2004, melatonin safe for non-prescription use is now listed as a natural health product under these new Regulations. Previously melatonin was considered an unapproved drug and could not be sold in Canada. Health Canada has issued a NPN for a natural health product if the evidence supports its safe, quality and effectiveness as a (non-prescription) NHP. The NPN is a numerical code assigned to each NHP that has been approved for market in Canada as an OTC product. To date, no NPNs have been issued for melatonin for use as a (non-prescription) natural health product., and it is important to note that without a NPN, the safety and effectiveness of melatonin has not been established, and that such product has NOT been approved for sale in Canada. and I'm no Yankee

I could have been a contender but my adhdeliberately got in my way

Topic: How do I get some sleep?

I give up. How? Topic: How do I get some sleep?

With your eyes closed?

I slept with my eyes closed last night, but was not laying down. I woke up with a brookan neck. Do you exercise at all? My hubby has started mall-walking every morning and has been sleeping much much better. Also, he stops eating an hour before bed. He really loves to eat high sugar foods right up until he closes his eyes, which really wasn't helping the sleep. I've had bad insomnia for years too, and I can't be on the computer or reading a really good book for the hour before bed or it wakes me up too much. Same goes for tv shows--no "cops" or high intensity shows after 10pm.wow, it sounds like mother england!!

colonising certainly does pay

Ah - mothersomething England maybe! LOL - ah I kid - I'm from english roots as pure as blood pudding and scones on me dad's side. Mom's German - so you can imagine I was raised in an interesting house as a child! LOL - Seriously it was great - my mother gave me good food (thank heavens - if it had been dad german I'd have been starving!) and dad the good morals and stiff upper lip what-what.

We love the motherland just a bit more than you down under. Yes, we know - unlike our southern neighbors we keep up with our commonwealth members.

I'm just ticked that when my ancestors decided to fly the coop they looked around and picked the cold frozen wasteland when there was beaches and blue skies still available! Damn - if my forefathers had only been thieves and hookers! ROFL. Sorry - canadian joke at your expense! But we envy you truly.

- Glen

Nope brookie - it's banned like pot and automatic weapons!

Maybe that will change - but unless the melatonin makers surrender or the government is convinced it's totally safe as vitamin C - we're all SOL. I know of some who smuggle it - I have never asked them how it works - I already have seen enough evidence to know it must.

We're more like the mother country than you aussies I guess - a bit stiff and stolid and hard to change. But bless us anyway! LOL

- Glen

no automatic weapons??? then i'm stumped to comprehend why so many yankees go up north to canada!!

Well Brook - I think they say that it's for the pot - but they stay for the crystal meth! Mmmmm that country fresh meth - picked on the farm!

Yeah no automatics. Lots of guns though - per capita we actually have more. We're just more mature about it - most of the violence here is smacking your fellow man about the head with blunt instuments. There is however the typical hunting accident - pretty usual during fights. "Yeah bob - stand over there - yeah where the red "X" is in the snow!"

And also there's not so many yanks moving up here as you might think! They did a review of immigration records a couple of months ago - to see if 9/11 did anything. Well- -no it didn't actually! Within a small percentage we're about the same as pre 9/11 for immigration. I woulda thought more too so don't feel bad.

We're great up here - but I think a lot of amuricans still think we're wussy and boring and that they'd have to live in igloos here if they came up. Also I discovered after talking to a nice american in the south that they are told we are very socialist and abort babies all the time - you know we're like castro with snow. Propaganda! We only abort babies HALF the time - get your stories straight people!

- Glen

Melatonin does the trick for me..hmmm let's say it helps me to go to sleep, it stops or at least slows down the monkey chatter...and docs okayit and it's safe...3mg usually does it

Ususally when I can't sleep it's because I'm stressed about something or I'm excited about something that's going to happen the next day ( like a little kid on Christmas Eve.) I'll take Ambian, but only if I can't sleep for a few nights in a row. Then the longest I'll take it is 3 days in a row to try to get back on track. It can be adictive and I definately don't want that!

Damn you yankees! You keep mentioning melatonin but it's verboten up here in the great white north! LOL - it's sad - but the government is kind of in a loop with this one!

You see - melatonin is rated in the US as a natural supplement - like vitamins. Up here - we classify things differently. We now have to classify a subset of supplements that either are proven to or claim to have benefits to health. They must be clinically proven and have special safety and quality tests. Melatonin so far is not being tested because the manufacturers don't want to spend the dough on the costly procedures. So Canada blocked it coming up and it's banned. Until they fight it out anyway - it's been in court to declassify it for a couple years now.

I'd love to try it - but I just can't see myself smuggling something up here - especially not natural sleep remedies. I don't think I could hack going to jail for melatonin smuggling. Blah.

Most weeks I am great on sleep - but sometimes I have to force it - going to sleep earlier than I'd like and making extra effort. Works more than half the time so it's ok. I cover my bedroom window with black plastic during the summer - it helps when I'm on graveyard shift. Living alone is an advantage too - one of the only ones really. I sleep when I need to and never have to worry about leaving a loved one out of the loop.

- Glen

melatonin is a natural supplement.. surely its available in canada??

then again, i can't get dmae in australia and all it is sardine oil ..

[QUOTE=sabina]where yu been GlenW, Melatonin's been legal for over a year, [/QUOTE]

I KNEW I should get out more often! I knew it was banned - but hadn't heard that it was off the banned list. They don't publish that on the news sadly.

I'm glad it's available again. I knew they were fighting to get it back.