Re: Sleep disorders and ADD

[Anonymous]

HI– I just became a member this minute. : ) My 20 year old son was diagnosed with ADD a few years ago and his doc suggested I check it out for myself. I’m responding to you because my son since birth ALWAYS fell asleep very late and at 18 was diagnosed with delayed onset disorder. I do not have the answer if this is part of ADD or not. I would suspect there could be a link and will watch this space to see what others say. I’m just writing in sympathy. I had delayed onset myself, throughout childhood and young adulthood, and only now suspecting/realizing I have ADD. For me, the sleep condition went away once I became a single mom with a demanding job and was tired ALL the time. I feel asleep the second my head hit the pillow. But for the last several years, I just do not go to bed before 1 or 2, there would be no point.

My son recently is mostly spared the delayed onset because he currently works a physically demanding job all day and gets home fairly late. It’s the first time in his life he has nights where he can fall asleep fairly quickly by 10pm. I will add that he still has the crutch of putting a movie or music on his laptop and setting it to stay on for 2 hours before turning itself off. This is his way of circumventing his mind’s tendency to become overactive and keep him up for hours in addition to the delayed onset. I’m sad for him, having had to deal with this for so long. Really, he’s tried everything. So sustained physical activity throughout the day worked for both of us independently, most of the time, plus for him the addition of something to focus on in the background while he falls asleep. Oh- and melatonin possibly helps; he is not certain but using it currently and thinking it might help some. I do wish you and your daughter all the best! and also would like to know if this is part of the ADD collection.

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