12:31 Why am I still up? | ADHD Information

Okay as a parent I have been waiting for the past year for my son to be in bed before midnight. Now here I am wide awake and on a message board possibly all alone and unable to even contimplate sleep? I have been dreaming in my dreams about getting a full nights sleep yet here I am with my brain in gear keeping me awake. Its not fair I think it might be a standing rule that some one in our house must be awake past the hour of midnight.... Is this a common problem that other parent's of ADHD children share. Those of you who have children who stay up all night or most of it, when they finaly started sleeping at night (if ever) did you too stay awake unable to fall into the comatose sleep I was so looking forward to tonight? How did you over come it. We as parents have almost had to be come ADHD ourselves to keep up with our childrens energy levels! Or am I rambling on making no sence because you unlike I are fast asleep. How do I shut down when I'm so used to chasing my son around his bed right now in an effort to catch him so I can settle him down and get him to sleep?

I actualy think that it just aggrivates the symptoms of ADHD. But even in non ADHD people when sleep deprived seem to exhibit symptoms of it in milder forms.

 

It's 325 am and I'm still up as well maffiakiddo. I'd say don't you have school but then I realised it's Saturday.

haha 245 here...I too have ADHD, but I have a couple of techniques that may help you get to sleep. First of all, try to keep your bedroom solely for sleeping/love-making. This will help your brain associate sleeping with going into your bedroom environment. (I would say get in regular exercise, but it sounds as if you're running around a lot already.) Also, a balanced diet and making sure you're not too hungry or too full will help you to fall asleep. Try to keep as much of a night-time routine as possible, this will also help. (warm milk or a small snack may help getting sleepy as well.) Relaxation techniques are also proven extremely effective. Meditation and hypnosis (just vivid visualizations/daydreams that encorporate all of your senses....try visualizing a relaxing beach laying on the warm sand, thinking how it feels on your body as you hear the soft ocean waves wash up on the beach while the sun sends a soothing sensation on your soft, sunkissed skin.....etc.) It may take practice, but eventually, the relaxation techniques should help you to un-wind and forget about all that is going on in your life....If you find yourself laying in bed, wide-eyed for 30 minutes with no luck at sleeping, get up and read or watch tv, or do something low-key until you feel sleepy again and then go back in your room and try sleeping again. Hope you finally get some sleep!

I pretty much never even go in my bedroom anymore. Every couple days I do actually sleep but mostly I go in there in the morning to get dressed and then again in the evening to change into PJ's.

Maybe I should rent it out and make some money since I don't seem to be using it. lol

mafiakiddo- perhaps you are mis-diagnosed with ad/hd. if you are depriving your body of so much sleep, you probably show "symptoms of ad/hd" however, they are not due to having the disorder, but can actually be blamed because of your lack of sleep. LOL 1:36 am here and I'm still gonna be up for awhile. Of course I have adhd myself so staying up nights just kind of goes with the territory. I can't offer any suggestions on getting to sleep yourself but at least you know you're not alone being up all night  . I'd assume over time your body will adjust and you'll be able to get back to sleeping normal hours.

I thought of that at first deang too, but if it was only a sleep problem then my adhd symptoms would disappear or at least improve during the periods that I slept well and would be worse the times I did not. Unfortunately they are pretty consistant no matter what the situation.

Oh well eventually I'll come up with another theory and blame my ADHD on that for awhile. Always hoping there is something simple and curable wrong with me instead of ADHD.

I was going to suggest and old medication that I haven't seen you list in your repitour of med's Maffia Kiddo, Pemelor ( think thats the spelling) It used to be used to treat ADHD and anxiety (soory horrible spelling today) They gave it to me as a teenager because I was such an axious child, I didn't sleep and when I wanted to I couldn't either. I would stay up for days at a time ( two weeks is my  record) On doctor thought I had ADHD and after a few test realised I didn't. So he chalked it up to anxiety Pemelor actualy can cause weight gain and knocks you out. I however lost weight on Pemelor because I was sleeping so much I didn't think to eat. I had a foster brother who was put on it though ( he had ADHD) and he gained about 15 lbs and he slowed down enough to sleep too and started getting good grades in school because he was able to focus more. I haven't even heard any thing about it in the past few years so I don't know if it's used any more or not but it worked great for me for a while then I went off of it and still seem to be doing okay.