For a week or so, my sleep cycle was all out of whack, which, in turn, caused me to be all out of whack. The past week though, fortunately, it's been back to "normal". The more I thought about it though, it really isn't normal by the typical definition, it's just normal for me.
While there are many hallmark signs/symptoms of AD/HD that are fairly widely known (though often VERY misunderstood), there are still a few that nobody really thinks about, unless you either have AD/HD or a close friend or loved one has it. One of those signs/symptoms is what can best be summed up as sleep disturbances.
I remember once, in a follow up visit with my psychiatrist, mentioning that "sleep is an adventure for me." His response was, "It usually is..." Of course he was meaning it usually is for those with AD/HD. One reason for this is the fact that most non-AD/HDers have an inner clock, known as a circadian clock, that helps their brain sense passage of time and is coordinated with the day-night cycle. (thank you Wikipedia). Typically this "clock" will reset itself as your environment changes. This is why it takes a couple days to adjust to the yearly time changes (assuming you live in an area that follows daylight savings time), your circadian clock is having to reset. Well, in many AD/HDers, that clock is busted. In my experience, it performs like a clock whose battery has run down enough that it no longer keeps the correct time, but the battery isn't fully dead yet so you still see something on the display. No matter how often you try to reset it, it just WILL NOT keep the correct time until you replace the battery.
Unfortunately, the fix for sleep disturbances isn't as simple as replacing the battery. Some AD/HD symptoms can be improved without medication (more on that in a later post). But, problems with the circadian clock is not one of them. Typically, the only way to get any noticeable correction in this area is medication, though there are a few things outside of medication that can help better the results the medication has.
Growing up my parents would give me time to "wind down" (especially after a ballgame or other event I was really excited about) before bed. Even after I went to bed my brain was still going 90 miles an hour as I lay in bed for an hour or more until sleep just kinda took over. Then, in the mornings, Momma would joke that I had to "rest from sleeping" as I laid in the bed trying (and mostly failing) to fully wake up, no matter how much or how little sleep I'd had the night before. I didn't know it at the time, especially since I didn't know I had AD/HD, but those are two of the common sleep problems for AD/HDers: Initiation Insomnia and Difficulty Waking.
As I grew up and moved out on my own (sort of) the initiation insomnia subsided a bit (though that difficulty waking just insists on sticking around) but the other two common sleep problems, Restless Sleep and Intrusive Sleep, started to kick in.
I can remember many conversations with my friends in college wondering why I was sleepy EVERY time they saw me. In my early 20s my drive to stay up and hang out was enough to get me through. However, as I got into my mid to late 20s and I lost that desire to hang out and started having to be at work early (for me) in the morning it got harder and harder for me to push through the fatigue. By the time I was 26 I was taking at least a few hours of leave each pay period (pay period is 2 weeks) trying to get some sleep. By 27, and up to my AD/HD diagnosis at 28 years 2 1/2 months of age, I was needing at least one full day off each week as my body had reached its exhaustion point. On those days, I'd sleep nearly the entire day away. So, one week I'd have my AWS day (regular day off for the pay period due to an alternate work schedule) and the next week I'd have to take a day off and use a full 8 or 9 hours of leave (depending on which day it was). Then, when you factor in a couple hours here an there for doctor appointments and other various things you get the idea that I was burning through my leave fairly quickly.
I had no idea why I was so tired all the time. I knew I was sleeping. I knew I was getting enough hours of sleep (after I stopped being stubborn about going to bed before 10). But still, every morning, I'd wake up just as tired, or even more tired, than I was when I went to bed. I had blood work done and my thyroid was fine and I wasn't diabetic. My iron was a bit low so my doctor had me start taking an OTC iron pill and things got better for a while. Then the exhaustion came back. I had more blood work done and this time my Vitamin D was 1 point away from being deficient. My doctor gave me a prescription for Vitamin D and started me on an OTC prenatal vitamin (though I wasn't and never have been pregnant) to try and pull all my vitamin/mineral levels up. I felt better but I still wasn't sleeping well enough.
As if I didn't have enough craziness going on, with the ordinary life adjustments for college students and then the situation outlined above, the intrusive sleep decided to stick its nose in my business too. I never really paid attention in class but, my mom worked in the lunch room at my K-12 school and I'm from a small town so everyone knew me and knew who my mom was so I learned to at least put on a show of paying attention so my teachers wouldn't talk to my mom. In college though, nobody knew Momma. I had a few professors who really knew how to keep the class engaged and I truly paid attention, but I also had a few who didn't or taught a class that held little to no intrigue for me. In those classes, if I didn't have a friend sitting close by to keep me distracted, I typically fell asleep. It didn't matter what I did to try and stay awake I'd be knocked out less than halfway through the class. Then, after I graduated and became a full time worker, I had tons of trouble staying awake during meetings. I'd say the worst time was when I was sitting directly behind the general and his deputy and my head kept bobbing. I never actually went to sleep but I was miserable and embarrassed at how hard it was for me to stay awake even though I'd been given a golden opportunity to sit in on a very important meeting and learn more about how the command works.
For me, the intrusive sleep is the one I have the most trouble wrapping my brain around (so I can only imagine how tough it may be for the non AD/HDers to understand). Intrusive sleep typically happens when AD/HDers are doing a task that doesn't feed their constant need for stimulation. It doesn't mean we don't care about what we're doing or realize how important it may be. It really doesn't even mean that we don't like what we're doing. Most everyone has a thing or two that they enjoy that doesn't require any real thought. It's just fun. For me it's surfing the web and watching my favorite crime dramas on TV. But, no matter how much I love those things, after a while my head starts to bob. At times I hate that it's like that. I'd love to be able to just "be" for a while every now and then but, it just isn't in the hand I was dealt so I continue to search for ways to work around it. Thankfully, my medication has made great strides in helping with the other three issues so at least I only have one still causing major problems.
If you have any of the problems mentioned above it's not a guarantee that you have AD/HD. You (and more importantly your doctor) have to take into account how often this happens for you and lots and lots of other factors as sleep problems can stem from many things but, if you have some of the hallmark AD/HD symptoms AND the problems sleeping, I highly recommend you seek help. Even if you don't have the hallmark symptoms of AD/HD but you have problems sleeping I highly recommend you seek help. Sleep is an essential function for the body to repair itself and stay healthy and constant sleep problems, no matter their cause, need to be addressed.
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