Having ADHD can create such difficulty when it comes to sleeping. With the mind racing at a million miles an hour trying to settle it down so you can get some sleep can be quite the challenge. So in this blog, I wanted to mention three methods on how to help you get to sleep. With any of these routes though, it is important to ensure that you do not affect any medications you are already taking. I will try to cover as much as I can in regards to side effects with ADHD medication, however, if you have any doubt please do consult your doctor.
Medicated route
The first thing that people tend to think of when they have trouble sleeping. You could almost think this as the easy route, especially as you can pick up something like Nytol straight off the shelve without prescription. Using Nytol as the example of off the shelf medication, in taking this is a really odd feeling the first time. When I say odd it is not a scary feeling, instead, you kind of feel like your thought process just starts to slow down. You start to feel the same feeling of when you are trying to sleep, but it doesn't feel natural. It may sound obvious the fact it doesn’t feel natural, after all, your drugging your brain to sleep. But it was something I wanted to mention as if you’ve never tried sleeping tablets before, you can at least know that this is what happens, rather than worry about said effects.
There are things you need to factor in when it comes to taking over the counter medication. One such thing is that if you do take something like Nytol, you need to ensure that you are going to get a full 8 hours sleep. If you have to get up earlier than that then you will feel groggy as the effects will still be in your system. Another thing to mention might seem an obvious one but don’t mix alcohol with sleeping aids. We all know the stories about date rape drugs which are a combination of sleep aids and alcohol. Now, these are far more powerful than over the counter medication, but you will get similar effects, such as a much heavier sleep as the alcohol boost the diphenhydramine hydrochloride. Now that may sound like what you are after, but that heavier sleep also comes with risks to your breathing and heart rate getting slowed down as well, so that mix is something to really avoid.
Now mixing ADHD stimulants and diphenhydramine hydrochloride is a different story. Both of these together are not a dangerous combination, as there has been no evidence of these two reacting badly together. However they both do the opposite effects, the diphenhydramine hydrochloride tries to send you the sleep, and the stimulants try to keep you awake and alert, so if you are going to use a diphenhydramine hydrochloride like Nytol, it is important to have timed it so that the stimulants in your system (if you use them) are at there lowest, this means, of course, a bit of forward planning and timing on your part, to ensure your not wasting your efforts, to get a good nights rest.
Of course with any medications, it is important to consult your doctor before you start anything, especially if your taking things other than stimulants such as antidepressants, so you can be sure that they are safe to take.
One last thing to note, diphenhydramine hydrochloride is not something that should be taken constantly. It is, of course, addictive after a while and will make it far harder to get to sleep without them if they are taken too much. If you want something as a routine to be taken before bed then have a look at the alternative route below.
An alternative to medication route
Something I recently found out recently was how I would describe as non-drug medication. By that, I mean the kind of natural sleep aids found in health food shops. I am a sceptical person and do not tend to believe things without researching them first. However, after I read up about this and then tried some I found that they were really working for me. This, of course, may not work for everyone and I still think that having some self-control of your mind is more important. However, for that little bit of extra help in getting to sleep, these are a great little extra.
ZMA is the first supplement I want to talk about. What ZMA contains is Zinc and Magnesium & B6, taken 30 – 45 minutes before bedtime, can really get your mind understanding that it is time to sleep. It also has had clinical trials proving that it benefits your ability to sleep so what is it about ZMA that helps you sleep? Well, it is a little complicated, unlike Diphenhydramine, whose purpose is to cause drowsiness and make you feel tired, Zinc and Magnesium, on the other hand, works to increase the quality of your sleep. By working within your muscles to relax them, which then helps to bring you to a much deeper sleep, so once you’ve gotten yourself settled down the amount of time you sleep will be longer. So instead of forcing you into an unnatural sleep it instead gets your body more ready to go into a natural sleep. Another benefit to ZMA is that as Zinc and Magnesium are such important parts of your body, they also boost your immune system and increase your testosterone levels.
Now the immune system boost is an obvious benefit but what about testosterone? Well, studies have found that men with difficulties in sleeping tend to have low testosterone, so having testosterone boosted is another side benefit in the task of getting a decent nights rest.
There are others who also say the same thing about ZMA. Joel Hascher made a video on YouTube describing exactly as I have mentioned already. He has ADHD and he uses ZMA to balance out his need of sleep.
Something important to note though ZMA will take around 2 weeks before it starts to work with your system, so it is not as fast acting as the over the counter drugs, however, it is far safer to use, without the risk of over-usage. It is far safer in all aspects except one. Ensure that you are not taking other magnesium supplements as well as ZMA, as the risk of taking to much magnesium causes diarrhoea. Not dangerous sure, but who wants to wake up smelling that in the morning? One thing however that needs to be covered as a side effect is that at least at the start of taking ZMA your dreams will get really weird. I have had dreams where my wife was on a stair lift over a volcano before our wedding for an example. It gets a really strange trippy feel during sleep. It seems to fade after a while of taking ZMA but it is something to be prepared for at the start.
However, one last bonus to ZMA is that it has B6, as that is one of the vitamins that really help with a person with ADHD to help with getting focus, which of course is a real help when you are trying to get your mind to settle for a good nights rest.
The second supplement that I wanted to discuss is Melatonin. This is a supplement which artificially produces a chemical that your body naturally produces, and what Melatonin does is signal your brain that it is dark and that it is time to sleep. Now unlike ZMA which contains chemicals which I would recommend taking nightly. Melatonin as a supplement is not something you do not want to be taking constantly as it will cause your brain to stop producing Melatonin, which then, of course, will lead to addiction, as your brain will just get confused and this prevent you sleeping.
Where taking Melatonin does have a use, however, is when you are suffering from jet lag. Using the supplement that can force your brain to understand that it is now night time in your new time zone and thus allow you to get some sleep.
Controlling your own mind
This is my favourite method, which has taken me years to really master. I mentioned it in my depression article. Being able to take control of your mind means no drugs and thus no side effects, which is something which I feel is a big plus. It does though take a bit of time to get the hang of, and if you have had a lot happening in your life recently which plays on your mind, then this is when the previous two methods can really help for the short term. However for every day (or every night) scenario, unless you have a condition like insomnia the following method is something which I find is the best solution, and is something anyone can learn.
So what do I mean by controlling your mind? It starts with the idea behind meditation. Now when you mention this some people immanently imagine having to sit in the lotus flower position for hours on end, and even though yes this is a way it is not the only way. Looking at the idea of meditation I have spent time researching into how it works, as I had read it was something which was recommended for people with ADHD, (which is something I will go further into in a different post). In regards to sleeping, however, I just want to discuss the meditation which helps with sleeping.
So onto sleep meditation, and with a bit of practice, I find this is the most effective way without relying on drugs or natural chemicals. If you have read from other guides they will mention that you should not think about problems that you have, it is something I have known since the early 90’s seeing it on a poster in a doctors surgery, what that doesn't tell you however is how to disengage your brain from random thoughts, and after a while of researching and learning I found a really effective way using a form of meditation.
So, first of all, let me mention something important about the mind and that is you cannot stop it from having random thoughts. At this point you may be wondering what I mean, how can you control your mind if it can’t be stopped from creating its own thing? This is was a really important lesson I picked up, the trick to it is to separate you from your mind. You need to realise that the mind is churning away things because that is what it does, especially with an ADHD mind. There are two stages to this process, the first is to learn how to ignore the mind doing its own thing.
In order to do this, while you lie in bed picture the things your mind is thinking about as a large box, and either you can imagine two rooms, where you push the box into the other room and close, the door, or a deep bottomless hole and you just push the box into the hole, watching it fall, (the second option I find works best but whichever works for you). With your mind doing its own thing separate to you, it will seem so silent in your mind, use this time to start the second process.
The next stage is to start your own dream sequence, what I mean by this is to actually force your own dream to run in your mind. When you do this after a short while with your mind relaxed it will take over the dream and carry on running with it. The dream that you are making up, though it is really important that you do not use a situation that stems from your everyday life, your mind will create that yourself while you are asleep, and if you do start to add real things in your life you start to over think them and that will be counterproductive to your goals of a restful nights sleep.
Instead, imagine a really wild dream which really lies deep within your imagination. For example, I have imagined that I have been inside a video game that I’ve played, the more wild and unreal it is the better. You could be flying in space or living as a knight in olden times, whatever you want, it doesn’t matter, what matters is you are in effect kick-starting your brain to go into sleep mode and not keep thinking about things which will just keep you awake. If however, something very big has happened in your day, for example, a fight with your partner, or maybe you had a really stressful time at work. Then you might find it really hard to follow this method without a lot of practice.
Conclusion
So to conclude the methods I have mentioned are all very effective ways in order to get some decent sleep when you have ADHD. All of these methods are what I have personally tried and have worked in different ways, and at different times. The ability to control your own mind I find is not only the cheaper route but also the safest. However there will be times when self-control is just not an option, and that is when additional help is a welcome benefit. However getting to that self-control can be a challenge, especially at the start when you have ADHD. Getting the mind to focus on creating a dream so you can get it to sleep when it just wants to do is, of course, the difficulty which I fully understand for people with ADHD is hard.
This is where method two can come in real handy. Having a ZMA Melatonin mix half an hour before bed can be just the support you need to get your brain to settle without the side effects, (as long as you don't overdo the magnesium ). We use stimulants as an example to help our everyday lives so using something to help sleep you shouldn’t feel bad about using. Cost perhaps could be an issue however if you think about using these just to assist while you are getting the hang of controlling your own mind, this would become the perfect combination, to perfect a perfect nights rest.
Now, of course, this depends on your own circumstances, if you have had a really terrible experience during the day as already mentioned then there are situations when the first method could be a useful benefit. Keep in mind, however, Nytol being a Diphenhydramine brings actual risks, which is why I say to use these very sparingly. Especially when the other two methods are just as effective without the risks.
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