Hello friend! Are you feeling well rested?

If you were given an extra hour in your day (magically you got 25 while everyone else got 24) would you use it for activity or would you use it for sleep? If I was asked this question a few years ago, I’d have been firmly on the side of squeezing in more activity. Honestly, I resented my need for sleep. I put it off as long as I could and got by with as little as possible — although, once I let myself get to bed, I didn’t want to get up. I hit snooze and needed a series of alarms to wake me, and the only thing that consistently got me up was the shot of adrenaline from the threat of being late for work or an appointment.

You could catch me nodding off while trying to meditate, while reading a non-fiction book, or learning a new song on the guitar. These were things I wanted to do, but they weren’t stimulating enough to keep my attention and prevent the encroachment of sleep. But I didn’t think I had a problem with sleep. I didn’t have insomnia. I could fall asleep and stay asleep just fine. I thought it was normal (and my own fault) to feel at least a bit tired all the time.

I remember the sense of wonder I felt the first time, when I was maybe fifteen, that I stayed up all night to finish reading a novel (The Plains of Passage by Jean M Auel; please don’t judge). It was as if I’d found a cheat code for life. Why would I want to spend my time on something as uninteresting as sleep when there were so many other things I could be doing instead?

Maybe you can relate?

So what is the connection to ADHD? The majority of people with ADHD (an estimated 70%) have a problem with sleep. It isn’t just insomnia. It can be a resistance to sleep, night time anxiety, delayed sleep phase, or other diagnosable conditions such as sleep apnea.

But what’s the big deal? Why would it matter if I was a little tired, as long as I got enough sleep to be able to function? Through a lot of trial and error I had learned that if I got less than five hours, I’d feel like an utter zombie, lurching between brain fog and raw emotional reactivity.

However, with six hours or so, I could get by. I understood sleep as basically the absence of wakefulness. I knew it was restorative and healthy, but passive, like not using your phone while it charges. And if I stayed out of the red zone, all was well.

I bet you can guess that I was wrong.

Six hours of sleep is not enough. One effect of sleep deprivation is that you start to have little moments of inattention called microsleeps — you zone out. If someone said your name, you wouldn’t hear it. But unless that person told you, you’d be unaware of what you missed.

​In one study, sleep researchers found that if you’re getting only six hours of sleep per night, in less than two weeks (11 days), you’ll have as many microsleeps as if you’d stayed up for an entire 24 hours straight, but you won’t really notice the impairment. And that’s the same level of attention impairment as having a blood alcohol level above 0.08 percent.

If that wasn’t enough to give me a grudging appreciation for sleep, I’ve also been convinced that adequate sleep is essential for learning and memory.

That definitely makes me wonder how much more benefit I could be getting from my ADHD medication if I was also getting enough sleep.

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And that, my friends, leads me to some resources to help us improve our sleep:

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For the ADHD “why do I struggle??” perspective:

Translating ADHD podcast

​ADHD and Sleep (pt. 1)​

​ADHD and Sleep (pt. 2)​

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ADDitude Magazine podcast/webinar

​Time for Bed! Sleep Solutions for the ADHD Brain with Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D.​

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For the “I want to be entertained and learn a ton” perspective:

Ologies podcast

​Somnology (SLEEP) Encore with Dr. W. Chris Winter​

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For the journalistic perspective:

Ten Percent Happier podcast

​How to Sleep Better with Diane Macedo​

​The Science of Sleep with Dr. Sara Mednick​

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For the neuroscience and optimizing tools (all the tools reviewed!) perspective:

Huberman Lab podcast & youtube

​Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing​

​Dr. Matthew Walker: The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep​

Huberman Lab newsletter “Toolkit for Sleep”

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I’ve been making a very concerted effort over the past two years to improve my sleep. And I’ll admit that it’s a struggle. I’ll do well for a while and notice how much more present and emotionally resilient and stress tolerant I am. And then things will get busy and I’ll slip into my old habit of sacrificing my sleep for “more important” things. Then I’ll notice how much stress tolerance I’ve lost.

Listening to Dr. Matthew Walker, first on Huberman Lab, then on his own podcast, has reinvigorated my determination. I just invested in a sunlight lamp, which I will start using tomorrow.

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Some of the other practices I’ve adopted are:

• My phone lives on a shelf at the foot of my bed when I’m sleeping.
• I use earplugs almost every night.
• I stopped sleeping in on weekends and try to maintain a consistent wake-up time.
• I keep the bedroom as dark as possible at night.
• I have a dim nightlight in the bathroom.
• I enlisted an accountability partner to help me avoid doing “one more thing” at night.
• When I get into bed, I use the box breathing technique to calm my nervous system.
• And then I often use the “Fancy Nancy” technique — Alie Ward’s family secret that she reveals in the Ologies episode linked above.

How will it all work? Check back with me in another six months. I know I’m making progress.

I’d love to hear how well you’re sleeping and if you’ve tried any of the ideas I’ve shared here.

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Warmly,

Randy