ADhD & Insomnia, Any Help? | ADHD Information

Hi, Fellow ADhD-ers...

So, anyway, I've had insomnia since before I was diagnosed with ADhD. When I was a kid I'd run around & refuse to lay down to go to sleep. When I did try, I'd just lay there with my young mind racing through anything & everything that it could comprehend.

20-something years later, there's more my mind can comprehend. I take Concerta 54 for AdhD with good results. The thing is, my brain doesn't stop when I'm trying to sleep & you can't take a stimulant then, of course! I just lay there & feel depressed & tired & then the next day my brain doesn't work as well because I'm sleep-deprived, so it's like a vicious cycle.

I've taken different meds for insomnia. The benzodiazepines like ativan & valium just make me feel physically exhausted & sorta depressed. Ambien works, but it takes more than 10mg, which is how it is dispensed.

I'd like to know if anyone has any behavioral ideas for treating insomnia with ADhD. Have any other meds been helpful? I heard about Lunesta, a new sleep aid - anybody taken it?

I'm new - any suggestions are appreciated! XOXO!

Hey DJ!

Welcome! Yeah, I've tried Lunesta, the butterfly one. No, it didn't work for me too well. I couldn't drop off on it. Once I did fall asleep, I'd sleep for 8 hours, though.

I'm an Ambienator, too. 8 years steady now. 'cept for the Lune' trial. Normally I take 5 mg, by splitting the tab in half. When I'm hyper, I'll take the whole. I've never taken more than 10mg, although I've paired it with the left over Lunesta, for a quick kick into lala land, and a prolonged stay.

Cimetidine (sp?) is an antacid that synergizes the efficacy of 'bien. Take it 20 minutes prior.

Here's a link to alternative sleep aids. I'm an insom myself. Huh.

I'll bump the thread up from it's hidey hole so it'll be on radar, too.

http://www.adhdnews.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12441& PN=1&TPN=1

Goodest of luck,

Hey guys - here's an interesting story!!

At work - I serendipitously found a fellow ADHDer!!

I was talking to my coworkers before work last night. I was mentioning an annoying neighbor - one who uses his deep fryer in his bedroom (what hannibal uses it for - I don't wanna know). A friend piped up and mentioned "that's nothing - a friend of mine can't sleep without the hair dryer on all night".

Wow - I found a hidden ADHDer!!!! Who but one of us would spend that much power just to sleep !?!?

Interesting - huh?

When I was a kid I found that I couldn't shut my brain off at night - I was always worrying and working things out and it would keep me up for hours and hours. But I found a solution, although I don't know if it would work for everybody. Basically I made a rule that I couldn't think about anything real - no real people, no real problems, no real situations. What I did instead was make up stories, often add-ons to TV or book characters, sometimes all my own. It was like telling myself a bedtime story; I'd get lost in the fantasy world but my anxiety and stress would disappear and I'd fall asleep. Now, fifteen years later, I still have stories that have been going for that whole time - entire worlds of characters. Since they're not real, I don't have to finish the story in one night; the crazy compulsion to solve everything in one sitting is gone. And so I sleep :) Yeah, you can definitely develop a tolerance to Ambien. I find if I go without it for a week, it works well again when I go back to it. But maybe that's because I'm extra tired from not sleeping! Wordwoman38644.7337731481

WHAT THE HECK? I just saw a commercial for free Ambien - like there is a new kind or something. Patent law is my field, but you gotta still laugh at these pharms for pull stunts like this.

On another note: Does anybody notice tolerance to sleep meds?

I notice almost no tolerance to concerta & ritalin because I take weekends off (like, I half my dose). That's really effective for me.

Yet, to be honest, I feel like ambien is about 1/10th as effective as before... weird, huh? & no, I don't want to try taking it with alcohol...

Welcome Deanna!

I've mentioned it in other spots - and I'll tell you about it here. There are ways of helping sleep when you have ADHD - and I found it by accident as a young child.

First - never go to sleep in a totally quiet room! It's our bane - it ends up letting the hornet's nest in your head go nuts. Never could sleep in silence.

Get a white noise generator - electronics stores have them cheap. A shushing static sound helps clear the mind - I used a dead TV station as a kid or a radio station that's boring.

It does help - just make sure the sound isn't startling or non-repetetive. It works - give it a shot!

I think I may have said this somewhere else, b/c I remember the DJ... However, remember I'm AD??D, or something like that, I forget...

But, no, I have been on Ambien for years, and still get by with a half tab, or full tab as needed.

Went to doc today, and he thought I was od'd on Cymbalta, b/c after falling asleep, I slept too much. So, he cut Rx in 1/2, and added low dose of Well, butrin (150 mg) in the morning, to counteract the drugslug I am in the morning.