People living with ADHD often struggle to sleep due to stimulant medications used for treating ADHD; these may interfere with restful restful restful slumber.
Correlates of ADHD can include sleep disturbances such as snoring and obstructive sleep apnea; US guidelines advise evaluating someone suspected of ADHD before initiating pharmaceutical treatments (Cortese et al. 2013a).
Insomnia
Sleep is essential to both physical and mental wellbeing. If you’re having trouble falling or staying asleep, this can negatively impact both aspects of life. Chronic insomnia could be an early warning sign of adhd.
Insomnia is a prevalent and debilitating sleep issue that may stem from any number of causes, including medications, stress and anxiety levels, medical conditions, diet, exercise routines, habits or environment. If you’re having persistent issues sleeping it’s wise to visit your physician in order for them to identify its source and suggest possible remedies.
People with ADHD often engage in behaviors that disrupt their normal sleep cycle, including excessive caffeine use and napping. This can delay production of sleep-inducing melatonin and affect how quickly people fall asleep at bedtime; taking melatonin supplements may be helpful; just ensure to use a low dosage so it won’t interfere with natural production in your body.
People with ADHD may also experience insomnia as they often coexist with conditions like restless legs syndrome (RLS). RLS causes an overwhelming urge to move the legs at night, which may make sleeping difficult. Although its exact cause remains unknown, genetic and environmental factors likely play a part in both conditions being present simultaneously.
Additional factors that contribute to insomnia are:
Maintaining an effective sleep routine for both adults and children living with ADHD is of utmost importance. Setting a firm bedtime, avoiding stimulating activities like watching television or using electronic devices shortly before sleep time, practicing relaxing breathing exercises, and creating a calm environment all can be used as tools to achieve effective restful slumber.
Your doctor may suggest trialing medication that assists in falling and staying asleep, such as melatonin or sedatives. These should only be used as a last resort and in combination with healthy lifestyle choices and behavioral therapy for maximum effectiveness.
At Frida, our free screening tool makes identifying ADHD easy. Get started right away to see how combining behavioral therapy, diet, exercise and supplements with each other may lead to better restful nights for you.
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by uncomfortable and sometimes painful sensations in your legs. Additionally, RLS often leads to an irresistible urge to move the legs uncontrollably – such as pacing back and forth or rocking. This feeling may be caused by an issue with the basal ganglia, an area of the brain responsible for movement control. Typically associated with dopamine deficiencies in the brain. Stressful events such as peripheral polyneuropathy, diabetes mellitus, kidney failure and Parkinson’s disease; medications including antidepressants, antiepileptic drugs (benzodiazepines and opioids); cold and allergy remedies with older antihistamines; as well as some cold/allergy products can all trigger hypersomnia symptoms; as well as medications used to treat them all can all increase hypersomnia symptoms;
People suffering from RLS often need to move their legs in order to relieve any discomfort when lying down or sleeping, leading them to experience reduced quality and quantity of restful REM sleep, often leading to daytime fatigue and inattention. RLS has also been linked with depression, anxiety disorders and neuropsychiatric conditions.
RLS is usually a lifelong condition and more common among females than males, particularly those with ADHD and coexisting depression or anxiety disorders such as OCD and Phobias, or chronic pain conditions like Fibromyalgia/Myofascial Pain Syndrome. RLS can often occur alongside these disorders as well as conditions that affect the nervous system – depression is especially likely to co-occur with RLS while it often appears alongside myofascial Pain Syndrome as a contributing factor.
Practice good sleep hygiene to help manage symptoms. This means establishing a routine bedtime/wakeup time each night, sleeping in a dark room and limiting exposure to stimulants like caffeine. Doctors typically prescribe dopaminergic agents (ropinirole and pramipexole) and levodopa plus carbidopa for RLS; opioids or benzodiazepines may be added if symptoms become more severe. Before taking any new medication, be sure to speak with your physician; some can interact with ADHD treatments and could worsen symptoms. They may suggest trying a foot wrap or vibrating pad as part of a plan to try to alleviate them.
Disrupted Sleep-Wake Schedules
Sleep-wake cycles regulate your natural rhythm and signal when it’s time to go to bed or wake up. People living with ADHD can experience disrupted sleeping patterns that could be an indicator of ADHD due to behavioral symptoms, physiological differences or side effects from medications used to treat it. Therefore it is crucial that any sleep issues related to ADHD be identified and treated quickly as these can impair daytime behavior and make focusing difficult.
ADHD individuals frequently experience sleeping difficulties due to having their circadian rhythms upset, due to issues like sleep disorders, deprivation or excessive caffeine use. Circadian rhythm disorders include irregular patterns of wakefulness that interfere with daytime functioning – these may include delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS), advanced sleep phase syndrome (APS) or free-running type (also called nonentraint or non-24 hour sleep-wake cycle pattern).
Caffeine use and daytime napping often aggravate symptoms of sleep disorders, increasing awake time while disrupting one’s adenosine levels during the day and making you sleepy at night. Both behaviors also have an adverse impact on a person’s “sleep pressure,” or levels of adenosine that build up during the day that make you sleepy at night.
Breathing disorders like snoring and obstructive sleep apnea are another frequent source of sleeping difficulties, often manifested as children with the condition, due to their enlarged tonsils or other factors. Many individuals diagnosed with OSA report seeing their ADHD symptoms diminish after surgery is performed to address the issue.
Acquiring quality sleep is one of the key strategies you can employ to successfully manage ADHD symptoms and enhance overall health. Set an alarm at a regular time each evening and wake up around that same time each morning. Furthermore, if you take stimulant medications such as Ritalin for ADHD treatment, try switching over to four-hour extended release doses or non-stimulant options such as Clonidine which could actually enhance sleep quality.
Sleep Disorders
Sleep disorders can interfere with your ability to fall or stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too frequently at night, interfering with alertness during the daytime. Common symptoms of such disorders are difficulty falling or staying asleep (insomnia), disturbed sleep-wake rhythms and disorders associated with movement during sleep.
Many of these disorders are more likely to affect people with ADHD than in those without it, and are associated with narcolepsy, an incurable disorder that causes excessive and inappropriate sleepiness that makes it hard for anyone to function normally during the day even after getting enough restful slumber. Additionally, certain sleep disorders have been closely tied with adhd. Additionally, some sleep disorders have been closely tied with narcolepsy – another sleep condition which makes falling asleep at odd times possible and makes functioning during the day even after getting enough restful naps!
Researchers employ both objective measures (polysomnography and actigraphy) and subjective measures, including diaries or parent/self rated questionnaires, in their attempt to diagnose sleep-wake disorders. Objective measurements tend to be more reliable than subjective ones which can be altered by things like work schedules and family routines; several studies have linked ADHD with more impairments on both objective and subjective measures than controls, including bedtime resistance, difficulties sleeping through the night, insomnia, frequent awakenings during the night, sleep-disordered breathing disorders and excessive daytime sleepiness (Cortese et al 2009).
Sleep pressure builds throughout the day and reaches its maximum around 16 hours after you first wake up. People with ADHD may disrupt this process by drinking too much caffeine or taking too many naps; caffeine binds with adenosine (a chemical signalling the start of sleep-wake cycles in our bodies), while napping resets its levels causing delayed adenosine levels resulting in delayed sleep pressure.
ADHD-related sleep disorders include obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy and periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS). Furthermore, nightmares, hallucinations during sleep or paralysis during rest can disrupt one’s sleeping cycle and create sleep disruptions.
There are various treatments for ADHD available that may help improve sleep and quality of life. Treatment typically requires the collaboration of healthcare professionals such as pediatricians or child psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and physiotherapists – along with pharmacists to verify medication dosing and provide education about its effect on restfulness.
The Sleep Loft - Online mattress showroom 