How to Get A Good Night’s Sleep

by board member

Alex Hey, ADHD Coach at ResetADHD.com

It is hard for many people with ADHD to get a good night’s sleep.  Poor sleep causes serious problems with executive functions, the skills that help us be organized, focused, and efficient.  There are many components to achieving a good night’s sleep.

Learning your chronotype is step one as it determines when you want to be awake, when your peak performance time is, and when you want to sleep. Here is an online quiz that determines your chronotype, according to Dr. Michael Breus. The quiz sorts people into four chronotypes, Lion (morning type), Wolf (evening type), Bear (inbetweeners), and Dolphin (problem sleepers). The quiz helps determine your natural 24-hour cycle.  With this knowledge, you can plan your day and go to bed at a time more conducive to falling asleep.  

Getting a quality night’s sleep is a mystery to many with ADHD. As a child, I spent hours lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. Nothing worked. No matter what I tried, I lay there with thoughts racing in my head.  I couldn’t shut off my ADHD brain. Any guidance I was given or read was for the neurotypical brain, but the ADHD brain is different and needs different solutions. I developed a sleep formula for my ADHD brain: Lie in bed + feel tired + calm my mind = fall asleep. My formula revolutionized my sleep.

First, get into bed at the same time every night. This is not easy when you have ADHD. Our brains don’t easily shut down and impulsivity keeps us doing one more thing.  Overcoming our impulses may require a bedtime alarm to start the process of going to bed. It may take accountability from a friend, coach, or family member. When you are physically in bed, you are one step closer to a good night’s rest.

Next, your body has to be tired. There are many ways to have a tired body. Get exercise during the day. It burns up energy and ensures you do not have excess energy when it is bedtime. Another way is using the sun’s light as a signal for when to be awake and when to be asleep. Get sunlight during the day, and put yourself in darkness in the evening.  Your brain will learn it is time for bed when it gets darker.

Blue lights from electronic screens, including television, mimic sunlight. Staring at a computer screen tricks your brain into thinking it is daytime when it is really time for bed. If you can’t avoid staring at a blue light before bed, use blue-light blocking glasses. Yes, there is such a thing.  Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m. and you will more likely feel tired at night. Caffeine, a stimulant, stays in your system a long time and delays the onset of sleep.

The last step is to have a calm mind. This is the part I struggled with for over twenty years. Calming down the ADHD brain is not an easy task. How does a person with a wide-awake brain achieve a calm mind? Make sure you are calm and relaxed before bed. Complete your getting-ready-for-bed routine first—brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, etc. Focus on winding down physically and mentally.  Prayer and/or mediation, especially in a darkened room, are excellent ways to do this. But after completing your self-calming practice and your head hits the pillow, your thoughts might start racing again.  Think of something that will occupy your thoughts without being so engaging that it wakes up your brain. What works for me is listening to a podcast. For you, it might be something completely different, like focusing on taking deep breathes, breathing in for a count of six, and out for a count of six.  It takes most people 15 minutes to fall asleep, so don’t get impatient. If after 15 minutes you haven’t fallen asleep, get up and engage in a calm activity until you feel sleepy.   Lying in bed without falling asleep is not helpful.  You want your brain to connect lying in bed with falling asleep.

With my sleep formula, I fell asleep with no difficulty, night after night, but I didn’t wake refreshed.   I wondered why.  That’s when I learned about sleep apnea and how 25% of people with ADHD are believed to have sleep apnea.  I did a sleep study and qualified for a CPAP machine.  There is an online screener for sleep apnea, but to get a diagnosis of sleep apnea you need to do a sleep study before a doctor can prescribe a CPAP machine with the appropriate settings.

By taking control of your sleep, you will fall asleep faster, wake up more refreshed, and have better executive function skills during the day. Better sleep for you, night after night, is worth the effort.