Just want to sleep and be left alone- part of ADD or something else?

[Anonymous]

New here and full of questions.

32 year old male, never diagnosed with ADD/ADHD but probably should have been.

Here is my first question of sorts.

Most days I have alot of difficulty getting up and going and for the most part I can lay in bed or on the couch all day, half asleep and awake at times. Do others with ADD go through this?

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[Anonymous]

You might consider having a sleep study done. As far as I know, some symptoms of sleep deprivation look similar to ADD. My ADD consultant won’t do the final report to my physician until I’ve had a sleep study. He says he wants the sleep issues treated first, and then he will make recommendations on any residual ADD symptoms. It can take awhile to get in for a sleep study (depending where you are), so this is definitely something I would approach your general physician with.

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[Anonymous]

There’s a lot to sleep problems. I had problems with sleep ever since I was in the Marines but I was also diagnosed ADHD a few months ago. Apart of ADHD is restless at night, you don’t stop being hyper active after you go to bed. I’m assuming that since I went from being a high schooler to running half marathons (seven miles out, a couple hundred meters in the ocean and seven miles back) once a week that with a high calorie diet might have something to do with it. I’m older now but I have to have a fan blowing even in the winter to drown out he noise to sleep. I need to know what your work hours are; I worked on graveyard for a couple of years and that made my bad sleep habits worse.

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[Anonymous]

My work hours are inconsistent, I am a long haul truck driver. Some days I can get 8-10 hours of sleep, others only 4 or 5 hours. Getting to sleep can be near impossible most days and more so on the weekends when I am home. Then when I am awake I can’t seem to get anything finished, have no idea where to start or am so scrambled trying to do get ten things done at the same time. This is causing alot of problems on the home front, not only with my wife but children as well.

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[billd]

Same symptoms – especially on weekends where I SHOULD be getting a lot of my own fun things done, but can’t. Just want to nap.

At times, it’s a NEED, can’t fight it and if I do, it’s just plain wicked dangerous.

The specialists are fussing over the chicken/egg thing, so I’m stuck in the middle and right now, neither side is or will treat me wthout MORE studies! The sleep study results are impossible to get – no one will talk to me about them, and my next appointment with THAT doc is 2 more months away! They said it was “urgent” and “I need to get ni immediately” and “we need to do this now”, then they wanted to try treatment really quickly, but have taken me off the nuvigil and here I sit, in limbo, no one willing to speak to me about it! (and it’s just getting worse with all the new medical laws going into place here now)

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[sdwa]

I have days when I’m exhausted, extremely low-energy, and can sleep at the drop of a hat. No health problems, no sleep disorders. I have no idea why this happens, but it helps to eat protein in the morning.

Not wanting to be around people is different – not sure if that’s what you mean – but I find that if I’m feeling overwhelmed or over-stimulated, I tend to shut down, and if I can’t be alone I get very irritable.

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[Tiddler]

I can sleep for 12 hours and wake up tired. I take a while to come round when I’ve woken up. My hands won’t close properly to start with for example, and I do a ‘stare’ where I’m not really ‘there’ for a while.

On the other hand, I can take hours to get to sleep and can suffer from awful insomnia because I can’t shut my head off. I can wake up after 4 hours sleep after a particularly bad night and feel the same – hands won’t work, doing my ‘stare’ etc.

If I can, I hide in bed for an hour or two in the afternoon too. I often fall asleep reading or watching a DVD/iplayer at this point, which is remarkably easy considering how hard I find it to sleep at night.

The only time I feel like I have lots of energy is when I’m hitting a deadline and I love the feeling of being awake and involved and doing.

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[Anonymous]

Tiddler, sounds a bit like me. I tend to drop things in the morning (when I’m not banging my head on the cupboard doors I open), and I never really thought about the “stare” until you mentioned it!

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[jensters1205]

Interesting to read this post. I have been lethargic/paralized at home for longer than I care to admit, but I was diagnosed over 15 years ago (my Grams a Dr. of education told me for years I was ADD). I have consistently inconsistent work hours. 1 day I work at 7a.m. the next I work at noon, then the next week I may work a 1:30-10…I never know. When I was younger I could NOT sleep with the television on as it would keep my mind wandering. In the past few years I have found that I keep the TV on as I attempt to sleep I guess to keep my mind on the TV instead of drifting /rambling. I set the sleep timer and ALWAYS right before it goes to shut off I wake up (there must be some shift that awakens me). ANYWAY it is nice to be able to consider the fact that my sleep inconsistencies are creating my lethargy…that I will take strides to work on ie: turn the damn TV off and or try to create a regular sleep schedule regardless of work sched. (that may affect performance but it is thier falt lol).

Thanks for the posts and letting me talk through my issue.

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[Geoduck]

No diagnosed sleep disorders, outside of hormonal insomnia. Even had it looked at SEVERAL times. My doc told me that addressing ADD might help the sleep issues. It’s definitely helped the getting up part, and the going to sleep part. The extra “noise” that used to float around my head (excessive inner dialogue…ADD people on meds know what I’m talking about).

However, it’s about 3:40 am and I’m wide awake. Grrr. So this I blame on my hormones (my twice monthly estrogen shift). Although, tonight, after a few days of good sleep and no obvious hormone shift, I don’t know what to blame it on.

The mornings aren’t nearly as tough for me, anymore. I used to be a giant bear in the morning. After babies, and the baby related insomnia, I would just write off mornings. After the babies grew, and all stopped visiting at 2am, I still had issues in the morning. Very foggy. The medication has helped with that quite a bit.

My brothers, father and I are all sleep talkers, and the most ADHD of us all, my older brother, is the only “morning person” out of the bunch, I have no idea why. My other brother, my father and I can’t do a thing in the morning (well, couldn’t, like I said, I’m doing better about this with the meds).

So yeah, ADD definitely has a sleep issue component. But Sleep issues definitely do cause ADD symptoms. Have the sleep thing looked into, but don’t be surprised if when you get your ADD looked into, you become some sort of weird morning person. Now, not counting nights I deal with insomnia, mornings go lots, LOTS, better.

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[Cat Alberts]

I have had similar issues: very tired in the morning, my brain would need a couple of hours to wake up, very tired around 5 pm and then energy at 11 pm, and maybe tired enough for sleep at 1.30 am. A complete burnout happened, and I was on disability which gave me the oportunity to sleep A LOT, and 2 years later I felt rested. Yikes, I know, I think I may have chronic fatique something going on as well. But a real help was getting diagnosed with ADD and taking meds. Very low quantity Methylfenidate, 3 times 5mgr, but my energy during the day is normal now. No more dips, naps or extra’s late in the evening. And I can feel sleep coming on at 11pm.

! Burned something in the kitchen…argh…

And yes, while feeling that tired, I had a lot of trouble being social. No energy to engage in conversation. Not a good thing for a social life~

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[Geoduck]

@Cat Alberts, yeah! It was like I never grew out of that teen/college sleep phase. You know, where you go to bet at 1 or 2 am and then can’t wake up until really late. Although, like you, even after waking up, it took a couple of hours to get going. I take adderall xr (amphetamine salts er). That removes the heavy fog that I felt all day, but particularly in the morning. I go to talk to the doc in about 45 min, for my regular ADD check-up. Lately, I’ve been feeling naps coming on again, but I really think that’s more related to the hormonal insomnia that I’ve experienced lately. I’ll have to bring the sleep thing up, though.

Man, this site is the BEST! I love not being alone in feeling all this stuff. What a huge difference this makes.

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[sdwa]

What Jensters1205 said reminds me that sometimes it’s easier to fall asleep with the lights on. Why? Because when the lights are off, I feel I’m under pressure to go to sleep – it’s dark, I’m supposed to – and that feeling of obligation stresses me out and keeps me awake. If I leave the lights on, read for a while, and relax, and lay the book open on my chest, and tell myself I’m just resting my eyes for a minute, it’s much easier to drift off.

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[Patte Rosebank]

It could be a touch of depression too. Part of the “fun” of ADHD is that when it shows up, it often brings along a few friends.

Inconsistent sleep/wake habits can lead to many health problems, including weight gain, stress, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, anxiety… And if you’re already prone to any health issues, it can make them a lot worse.

Just look at the stats on car accidents in the 7 days after we change to or from Daylight Saving Time. Even gaining or losing a single hour of sleep does a number on your brain.

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[Anonymous]

I just updated my sleep consultation on this thread, so I don’t have to repeat it here. http://totallyadd.com/forum/topic.php?id=1038

sdwa, I take a book to bed, low lighting. Usually takes half a page for me to drift off, but that doesn’t always do it. I keep reading until I really fall asleep. My husband is sleeping in another room now (severe sleep apnea and restless legs), so until his situation is resolved (followup coming up soon), I can play with music or tv or whatever I want to try to bore myself to sleep!

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