insomnia | ADHD Information

im in my fifties and have known im adhd for a long time......and my worst problem is awful insomnia i take ambien but know it causes depression

anyone out there suffer from insomnia?

ellen

Wow, Hemmie! It took 6 mos for something that freakie to happed? My second night, I was in bed and and the clothes started "crawling" out of the hamper the

man!. Doc said it was one of the undesired sideffects of ambian, but not harmful. So when I went to bed, if I stared at something long enough, I'd think WOW! this ROCKS! That was 9 yrs. ago. Now I just get to sleep.

I have always had insomnia. I also have taken ambian for 9 yrs now, and always seemed to be depressed. I never thought it was the Ambian!

Now I'm still on Ambian, but 3 mos. ago, I was given free samples of Lexapro. That has helped the depression A LOT Now I can sleep knowing when I wake up, that there just might be more to life than just "gloom & doom". By the way, I'm 48, and I have always known I had something, It just wasn't named yet.

I took Ambien for about six months.. then one night i looked up and saw flowers growing from the ceiling fan.. that was last night i took Ambien :) I too sufer from insomnia, but don't take any medications for it.

Have you ever just tried taking Tylenol Pm?

If I take a prescribed sleep aid it knocks me out, gives me side effects sometimes and leaves you feeling hung over the next day.

If I take Tylenol PM, It makes me sleepy enough that I can fall asleep and sleep through the night but I get up feeling fine the next morning.

One will make me a bit sleepy but my body can still fight it off.
Two and I am sleeping soundly.

Try it. I think it works much better then the ambien etc.

kurzz - I know what you mean. I don't "do naps" either. I'm always telling friends I'm tired and that's always what they say "take a nap". If I get to sleep I'm not up in any useful way for about 6 to 8 hours.

I'd try to find some other sleep aid than alcohol though. Although, if it's only say one beer that shouldn't hurt. Alcohol tends to make for poor sleep as well as dehydrate you which isn't good. Not to mention it becomes as much a bad bad habit as sleeping pills for many.

I still find the "white noise" the best for me. If I can get some meaningless noise in the background that changes so little it won't startle me then I sleep soundly. Ever since I've been on meds it's been a little harder - and I have to force myself to go to bed an hour earlier to be ready to sleep. It's not too hard for me since I have no people who rely on me to tuck them in or to actually deal with.

Interesting about the white noise.

Since I am deaf, I rely on sight so at nights it is frustrating trying to fall asleep when a beam of light appears from anywhere (e.g. a car with lights on approaching near our home). So I use alcohol to knock myself out. It's that bad, I know.

kurzzz38548.2959259259Unless I'm quite tired, I can't fall asleep without the TV or radio on, but it has to be a show I get interested in. (It's not the noise per se that puts me to sleep, it's the mental activity of listening to something that gets my mind off the things that keep me awake.) These days, though, my main problem is waking up too early and being unable to get back to sleep. I get off work at midnight, go to bed at 1 a.m., and then I wake up at 6:30 a.m. After trying for 30 or 40 minutes to get back to sleep, I give up. It's not a good situation, and it increases my distractibility (my main ADD symptom) incredibly.

I have tried eye mask and it was bothersome for me. Didn't feel relaxed that way.

eric, I also leave TV on until somehow I fall asleep. I usually get only a few hours of sleep and get up at 6 a.m. even on weekends.

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Interesting about the white noise.

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That would make white noise not an option. Have you tried a blindfold? They make those soft nice ones for travellers with jet lag. I would think if you can shut out all the excess light it might help a bit.

Just a thought.

Ditto. Mind spinning with many thoughts when trying to fall asleep. I currently take Tradozone to aid sleeping but sometimes ADD beats Tradozone.

However even with lack of sleep, I do not do naps. That sucks.

Alcohol helps me sleep so I usually drink beers on weekends and skip Tradozone. So far, it aids somewhat.

I have had the worst time falling asleep lately! it's terrible! I'll either A) take FOREVER to fall asleep because my brain is constantly thinking about things or B) I fall asleep and then wake up after a little while and it was like taking a nap so I am not tired anymore and struggle so much with getting back to sleep! i lay in bed for hours trying! it is horrible! it doesn't help that I am a very light sleeper. There are these irritating birds outside at night also that drive me crazy! They chirp all night! i don't mind during the day! I normally love birds and animals but at night when I'm trying to sleep it is NOT fun! lol. I bought sleeping pills but haven't used them yet! Hopefully those will help! I used to never have trouble sleeping after taking my Concerta at like 10 or 11 am and now I'm taking it around 11 or 11:30 every morning and sometimes I have a hard time. oh well! Once I took it at like 1 pm and had the worst night of sleep ugh! so I've learned to take it earlier! It takes me hours to fall asleep every night. Usually, these hours are wasted, trying hard to get to sleep.

Sometimes it helps to take 3AM strolls by yourself through empty streets. The air feels fresh, and the world is yours only...Ignore the occasional stumbling drunk. Sometimes I take a book and a Snapple and read on the sidewalk, under a street light. If I feel especially reckless, I pull a chair from the top cafe table, flip it right side up, and sit as if the place was open, cross-legged and business like, as if it's all normal. Or I rollerblade through the streets, zig zagging wherever the hell. No cars really.
Then, I come home refreshed and ready for bed. And stay up tossing for an hour or two more...

My ADHD always left me with insomnia. As a kid I had to sneak a TV, radio, something with "white noise" and static to wash out the inner dialogue that would chatter and keep me up. Fought constantly with my parents on dropping it but had to have something or I'd be up 3 days straight, reading, pacing or whatever to try and tire myself out.

As I've gotten older I still need the TV or a fan to get good sleep. Until I got on dexedrine. The first 6 months were the most self-directed sleeps I've ever had! I find the last couple of months are a little harder - but I'm a shift worker and it's always tough on the first day of the shift when I come around back to days (7AM wakeup when my week earlier was starting at 3PM). So I put it as just getting used to the meds. I no longer need the TV but it's on sometimes like a security blanket.

I think most ADHD sufferers tend to have disturbed sleep from all the buzzing activity our brain goes through. That's what seems to be the majority anyway.