Between 4 and 5AM this fine morning, I spent a sleepless hour thinking about a series of blogs I want to write this week about adult ADD / ADHD and sleep. Part of me thinks if I weren’t thinking about sleep, I would have been able to do so. Such is the life of an active mind.
Why am I sleepless thinking about sleep? Well, I told my ADD Coaching Mastermind Group I’d blog about the sleep issues of ADD / ADHD adults this week but when I last got down to writing, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Now my deadline is looming, so I need to get busy.
Also, Favorite Daughter and I got up at 1AM on Friday to watch the Royal Wedding (Prince William and then Kate Middleton, if you’ve been visiting Mars) which was an interesting little sleep experiment in itself.
How does an ADD / ADHD adult function without enough sleep? Not well. Not well at all.
Planning and staying alert and on task are hard enough for adults with ADHD as it is. When you don’t get enough sleep it becomes extra challenging. You’ll be even more inattentive, restless and impulsive. You can pretty much forget about staying aware and making clear, focused decisions.
Here’s the eye-opener about my personal little sleep experiment. I didn’t lose just one day to a mental fog after getting only three hours sleep to watch Kate and William tie the knot. Even though I went to bed early and slept well the next night, my brain was extra foggy for two days. I struggled through the following day, as well. So from this one-rat experiment, the effects of a sleep deficit hung around for a couple of days. Have you noticed anything similar yourself?
No one, ADD or not, functions well without enough sleep. Adults with Attention Deficit need to get a sound, restful night’s sleep if they want to control their ADD / ADHD symptoms.
The problem is getting enough sleep is challenging for ADD / ADHD adults. Stay tuned. In my next two blog posts I’ll delve deeper into what the deal is with ADD / ADHD and sleep.
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