It's always taken me a little bit to fall asleep at night, but it seems theses past few weeks it takes forever to fall asleep and the quality of sleep is low, i usually wake up a few times a night. For example yesterday night I was totally exhausted. I had worked at the barn from 8:30-2 and then at McDonald's from 4-12:30, I was phisically and mentally fried but as soon as I layed down my mind went into high gear and it took me well over an hour to fall asleep. I feel tired all of the time and my mood has been swinging around a little bit, mostly toward the negative. I feel disconnected from what is going on around me. I try to sleep more, but it's starting to get to the point where I hate trying to go to sleep. My mind is loosing thoughts quicker and in the middle of tasks I totally forget what I am trying to do. I also haven't been feeling well for a few weeks, mostly feeling sick and a lot of headaches. I kinda feel like I'm sprinting at full throttle but going nowhere...

Could this be from stress? My stress level has skyrocketed with graduation coming, public speaking (which I HATE), and family tension. I am going to talk to my psychologist about this but I don't see him until Thursday and I haven't seen him for almost a month. Any ideas with how to handle this or how to fall asleep faster?

Blah, hope this made sense....

[1Buster]

Sleep problems are very common with ADHD but there might be other issues causing your current problems since the severity has increased recently. The easy answer is the stress is the culprit. You don't say, but I bet when you wake up your mind is immediately thinking about something negative or gets racing. That's what mine does (when not on some of my current meds).

However, you should ask your docs about comorbid conditions that could be making an appearance, like Anxiety or Depression. Both are very common in ADHDers, as well as others. Don't let that increase the stress - the point is to recognize what's going on in your head and get treatment.

Hopefully, it's just the recent increase in stress and just a change in med dosage or adding something to help you sleep will do the trick, and if circumstances change down the road and your stress level goes down, you won't even need that. Lay it all out to the docs. Good luck!

Originally Posted by 1Buster

Sleep problems are very common with ADHD but there might be other issues causing your current problems since the severity has increased recently. The easy answer is the stress is the culprit. You don't say, but I bet when you wake up your mind is immediately thinking about something negative or gets racing. That's what mine does (when not on some of my current meds).

However, you should ask your docs about comorbid conditions that could be making an appearance, like Anxiety or Depression. Both are very common in ADHDers, as well as others. Don't let that increase the stress - the point is to recognize what's going on in your head and get treatment.

Hopefully, it's just the recent increase in stress and just a change in med dosage or adding something to help you sleep will do the trick, and if circumstances change down the road and your stress level goes down, you won't even need that. Lay it all out to the docs. Good luck!

Thanks for the help. Yes, my mind does tend to race when I wake up. Unfortiontally though, I am not able to be on any meds right now. Long story short, my parents have no idea about me having ADHD or that I am even seeing a psychologist (I am trading video work for my sessions). They wouldn't understand. So I'm kinda stuck right now...

[Cocosurviving]

I have BP dx and insomnia is a big problem. Our pdocs have to prescribe us sleep aids.